Left speechless. Michelle Williams was “paralyzed in feelings of futility” after learning that her All the Money in the World costar Mark Wahlberg was paid significantly more than her for reshoots on the movie.
The 38-year-old Oscar winner opened up about the pay disparity between her and Wahlberg, 47, while speaking at a rally on Capitol Hill with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus on Tuesday, April 2.
“It’s the kind of story I would normally resist: the morality tale with a happy ending, or rather a happy beginning because that’s really why I’m here,” Williams said in her speech, which streamed on Twitter. “There won’t be satisfaction for me until I can exhaust my efforts ensuring that all women experience the elevation of their self-worth and its connection to the elevation of their market worth.”
Williams and Wahlberg made headlines in January 2018 after reports surfaced that the Dawson’s Creek alum was paid less than one percent of what her male costar received for reshoots of All the Money in the World.
“I’ve been a working actress since the age of 12,” Williams said on Tuesday. “I’ve been accredited by my industry at the highest levels and that still didn’t translate to equal compensation. Months passed and the actress Jessica Chastain, with whom I had, in fact, played sisters, offered to take my story to her Twitter.”
Chastain was among the many actress outraged by the fact that Williams received less than $1,000 to redo scenes for the film, while Wahlberg made $1.5 million.
“Jessica’s audience was much wider than mine and she wasn’t afraid to pick up a megaphone and be heard,” the Greatest Showman star said on Capitol Hill. “Heard she was, there was an uproar and a public shaming within my industry that resulted in a $2 million donation to the Time’s Up Defense Fund.”
The Boogie Nights actor, for his part, released a statement at the time, informing fans that he was donating his salary to Time’s Up. “Over the last few days my reshoot fee for All the Money in the World has become an important topic of conversation,” Wahlberg said. “I 100% support the fight for fair pay and I’m donating the $1.5 million to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund in Michelle Williams’ name.”
After the controversy, Williams said she “could tell [her] workplace was shifting.”
“Rather than being grasped too tightly or hugged for too long as a morning greeting, my hand was shaken and I was looked squarely in the eye and I was welcomed to my Monday morning,” she said. “And on the job I completed two weeks ago — let me tell you something — I was paid equally as my male costars.”
