MadameNoire Featured Video

Blackish

Getty

With the Time’s Up movement and defense fund against sexual harassment and mistreatment of women in the workplace growing, particularly in Hollywood, the cover is being pulled back on a lot of the issues going on behind the scenes in Tinseltown.

One of those issues is major pay discrepancies between women and men, something everyday women can relate to. It was revealed last week that to film reshoots for their movie, All the Money in the World, actress Michelle Williams was given an $80 per diem for 10 days while co-star Mark Wahlberg was given $1.5 million for reshooting. Overall, according to The Hollywood Reporter, she was paid $625,000 for her work while he took home $5 million. This, despite the fact that it’s Williams who is getting the most attention for her work, including award’s season nominations and Oscar consideration.

When this news came out, people were shocked but not surprised. Wahlberg may be a blockbuster actor while Williams is known more for independent work, but the disparity is just too enormous to ignore. That’s why more women are having conversations about these matters in and outside of Hollywood and are sharing their salaries to create a change (and make more change — get it?).

According to THR, during a recent Time’s Up meeting, it was shared that Tracee Ellis Ross is getting paid significantly less playing Rainbow on Blackish than co-star Anthony Anderson, who plays Andre. Per the report, Ross is considering devoting less time to the comedy if contracts for the fifth season aren’t to her liking financially.

With negotiations for the fifth season ongoing, sources say Ellis Ross feels that if she isn’t brought up to Anderson’s level, she may opt to appear in fewer episodes to make up the disparity by guesting on another show. The tactic has split opinions within Time’s Up, with some worried that it’s more a retreat than a forward-looking solution (fitting in extra work isn’t always feasible, and often an actress wouldn’t earn as much guesting as she would as a network star).

However, THR says sources claim Anderson’s role with the program is much different than Ellis Ross’s, hence the pay difference.

A network source says a new deal will significantly increase her compensation and cautioned that Anderson and Ellis Ross’ roles aren’t equal given that he has been attached to Black-ish from the start and is an executive producer.

And while we don’t know the specific numbers as far as what Anderson and Ellis Ross are taking home, these types of revelations are definitely eye-opening. Although he is an executive producer, both actors have been with the ABC hit since 2014. They have both been nominated for awards for their work, including Emmys and Golden Globes, with Ellis Ross winning the latter for Best Actress in a Comedy in 2017.

Comment Disclaimer: Comments that contain profane or derogatory language, video links or exceed 200 words will require approval by a moderator before appearing in the comment section. XOXO-MN