Michelle Williams Details Drastic Pay Gap With Mark Wahlberg & How She Felt “Paralyzed”

The pay gap between men and women is a serious topic that’s still being worked on and advocated for, especially within Hollywood. The Venom actress Michelle Williams has recently opened up about her experience with the latter, detailing the drastic, unexcusable gap she experienced with her co-star, Mark Wahlberg. 

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The duo star in Ridley Scott’s film All The Money In The World and when Kevin Spacey was axed (after his sexual assault allegations) Mark and Michelle had to do re-shoots of certain scenes. The problem is that Mark was paid $1.5 million while Michelle was paid $1,000. Michelle was recently in Washington to speak in support of the Democratic Party moves to close the gender pay gap in America, and explained how the pay gap left her feeling “paralyzed in feelings of futility.”

“In late 2017, the news broke that I’d been paid less than $1,000 compared to the $1.5 million that my male counterpart had received for the exact same amount of work,” she explained. “And guess what, no one cared. This came as no surprise to me, it simply reinforced my life-learned belief that equality is not an inalienable right and that women would always be working just as hard for less money while shouldering more responsibility at home.”

She explained how her career as an actress, starting off when she was just 12, still couldn’t translate to equal pay. Mark donated his payment for re-shooting to the Time’s Up fund, while his agent William Morris Endeavour, donated another $500,000.