Amanda Seyfried Furious Over Being Paid Pennies Compared To Male Costars

Amanda Seyfried was furious when she found out how much she was getting short-changed. “A few years ago, on one of my big-budget films, I found I was being paid 10 percent of what my male costar...
Amanda Seyfried Furious Over Being Paid Pennies Compared To Male Costars
Written by Mike Tuttle
  • Amanda Seyfried was furious when she found out how much she was getting short-changed.

    “A few years ago, on one of my big-budget films, I found I was being paid 10 percent of what my male costar was getting,” Seyfried told the Sunday Times. “And we were pretty even in status.”

    This is the kind of inequality that has sparked more discussions this year than ever before. Some of that was kicked off when emails from Sony were hacked and leaked online. Seyfried and others got to see what kinds of numbers were being tossed around in their industry.

    Before Seyfried got her bad news, Charlize Theron used the information learned from leaked Sony emails to get an equal asking price as her male co-star Chris Hemsworth for Snow White and the Huntsman.

    “I thought about the temperature out there – with finding out what Jennifer [Lawrence] and Amy [Adams] were being paid on a set with guy actors who are their counterparts … They’re just as good as any of the guys on there,” Theron said. “Yeah, that pissed me off.”

    Amanda Seyfried sees this kind of uneven work area as ridiculous.

    “I think people think that just because I’m easygoing and game to do things, I’ll just take as little as they offer,” Seyfried said. “It’s not about how much you get, it’s about how fair it is.”

    Seyfried’s friend and co-star Lizzy Caplan says that one would think there would not be that kind of inequality in a business like film nowadays, where female execs are on the rise.

    “I mean, (look at) wage inequality even in our business, which is supposed to be this progressive side of things,” Caplan said. “I mean, it’s insane and it really pisses me off. I could go on a really hardcore feminist rant right now, but I’m not going to do that.”

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