It is no secret that a gender wage gap exists today, and as much as celebrities are on a different playing field than us, they don’t have it any better. That’s why Natalie Portman is speaking out about her costar Ashton Kutcher’s earnings for their film No Strings Attached being three times the amount she was paid.
Comparing the earnings of actors and actresses has become commonplace since the Sony hack of 2014, which caused Jennifer Lawrence to discover exactly how much less she was making than her male counterparts. But since then, more actors and actresses have been openly discussing the issue.
In an interview with Marie Claire U.K., Portman admits, “I knew and I went along with it because there’s this thing with ‘quotes’ in Hollywood. His [quote] was three times higher than mine so they said he should get three times more. I wasn’t as pissed as I should have been. I mean, we get paid a lot, so it’s hard to complain, but the disparity is crazy.”
As much as we are aware of the struggles presented by the glass ceiling, Portman has a point. It’s imperative to note that it is not just the middle and lower classes that face these challenges. It is women everywhere.
We need more women like Natalie who are willing to talk about these problems until they are solved.