Amid all the ruckus over sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood, there lurks the other power-related issue -- unequal pay for men and women actors. The two issues linked up in this one story -- with a good outcome.
When Kevin Spacey was exposed as having been a serial sexual harasser of young men in the theater/movie world, the producers of his completed -- but not-yet-released -- movie, "All the Money In the World," decided to delete him from the film by reshooting all his scenes and replacing him with Christopher Plummer.
This meant the other actors in the movie had to cooperate and redo their parts in those scenes as well. Supposedly a group of them agreed to do whatever it took to salvage the film, including working for free if necessary. They had already been paid their original, contracted fee for the film. But somehow Mark Walhlberg's agent reached a different agreement, and he was paid $1.5 million for the reshoots.
Michelle Williams was one of the others who agreed to reshoot for free, even though she is represented by the same William Morris agency as Wahlberg. There's been much discussion about this disparity. Williams was paid the required minimum per diem, which amounted to less than $1,000 for the entire reshoot -- vs. Wahlberg's $1.5 million.
Wahlberg made a decision and released this statement:
"Over the last few days my reshoot fee for All The Money in the World has become an important topic of conversation. 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."
His agent, WME, also chipped in a $500,000 donation to the defense fund, also in Williams' name.
This does not solve the larger problem of unequal pay for men and women actors, but it's a good outcome for this particular situation.
Ralph
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