Emma Stone is getting real about equal pay in Hollywood, revealing that some of her male costars have accepted pay cuts in order to level the playing field for herself and other female actresses.
Stone, 28, won her first Oscar for Best Actress in the smash La La Land in February 2017. More recently, she wrapped shooting the film Battle of the Sexes, where she plays feminist and tennis pro Billie Jean King opposite Steve Carell.
“In my career so far, I’ve needed my male costars to take a pay cut so that I may have parity with them,” she told Out magazine in an interview, which was published on July 6. “And that’s something they do for me because they feel it’s what’s right and fair. That’s something that’s also not discussed, necessarily — that our getting equal pay is going to require people to selflessly say, ‘That’s what’s fair.’ If my male costar, who has a higher quote than me but believes we are equal, takes a pay cut so that I can match him, that changes my quote in the future and changes my life. And this is Billie Jean’s feminism, and I love it — she is equality, man: equality, equality, equality.”
While Stone doesn’t name names of which of her male cast mates have took a pay cut, the actress expresses her gratitude for those who have.
“It’s not about, ‘Women are this and men are that.’ It is, ‘We are all the same, we are all equal, we all deserve the same respect and the same rights.’” she explained. “And that’s really what I’ve been so grateful for with male costars — when I’ve been in a similar-size role in films, and it’s been multiple people who have been really incredible and said, ‘That’s what I want to do. That’s what’s fair and what’s right.’”
