Amanda Seyfried has added her story to the instances of gender discrimination that seem to be piling up in Hollywood.
For one movie, though she didn’t say which one, Amanda Seyfried was seriously shorted in pay compared to her male counterpart.
Amanda Seyfried said, “A few years ago, on one of my big-budget films, I found I was being paid 10 percent of what my male co-star was getting, and we were pretty even in status.”
She added, “I think people think because I’m easygoing and game to do things, I’ll just take as little as they offer. But it’s not about how much you get, it’s about how fair it is.”
Of course Amanda Seyfried is only the latest to join a vast feminist and gender-equality movement going on in Hollywood right now, and there are plenty of stories to go around.
For instance, in one of the most humiliating tales so far, Tracee Ellis Ross told of one particularly nasty audition.
She said, “I tested once for a network show to play a lawyer. A Harvard-educated motherf—in’ lawyer, OK? I wore a skirt suit and heels. Seemed appropriate. Then there were many discussions about my hair. They’d printed up all these pictures of me from 15 f—in’ years ago and had me in and out of the bathroom trying on clothes.”
She continued, “They finally pick a skirt — the shortest I brought. Then got a T-shirt from one of the people in the office. The woman says, ‘Hmmm, your boobs.’ I was like, ‘I didn’t bring a bra for this T-shirt.’ She screams down the hall, ‘Who wears a 34B?’ I put on someone else’s bra, a size too small, and somehow auditioned.”
She added, “I remember wondering, ‘What did I just allow myself to do?’ The other actress [who auditioned] was dressed like she was going to a club and got the role. It was one of those moments where you’re so confused and humiliated. But that’s part of the biz.”
So crazy. Instances like this have provoked Amanda Seyfried and other stars to stand up and fight back.
In an effort to push back, Charlize Theron recently re-negotiated her pay for The Huntsman when she realized she was being paid significantly less than her co-star, Chris Hemsworth.
Amanda Seyfried said Theron’s actions, while brave, are risky.
She said, “You have to decide if you’re willing to walk away from something, especially as a woman.”
What do you think of Amanda Seyfried’s experience and the expanding feminist movement in Hollywood?
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