CENTRE STAGE: Hollywood’s widening gender pay gap

Last week, Forbes released its annual list of top paid actors and actresses in Hollywood, and men, as usual, seem to the banking a whole lot more than the women.

The top 10 actors amassed a total of about $488 million (Sh48 billion), a figure almost three times more than what the top 10 female actresses banked, with their figure totalling to $172.5 million (Sh17 billion).

What stands out more, however, is the huge difference between the number of men and women in the top 20 named elite earners.

Emma Stone, 28, was named top paid actress with $26 million and that amount could “only” put her at position 15 of the combined list of actors and actresses. Emma’s earnings are mostly from her movie-musical La La Land, which also won her an Oscar Award for best actress. Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Lawrence follow closely behind, at 16th and 17th positions respectively.

Rapper-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg was named the world’s highest paid actor, earning an estimated $68 million (Sh6.8bn) pre-tax over the past 12 months thanks to earnings from “Transformers: The Last Knight” and comedy sequel “Daddy’s Home 2,” due out in November. His figure is more than 2.5 times more than Emma Stone’s.

Dwayne Johnson, who placed first in 2016, is in second place with $65 million (Sh6.5bn), after starring in the big screen reboot of lifeguard action-comedy Baywatch and starring in HBO comedy Ballers.

The former wrestler appears in fantasy adventure remake Jumanji in December and Rampage, a monster movie based on the 1980s arcade game, in April next year.

In 2016, however, Jennifer Lawrence was Hollywood’s highest paid woman for a second year running, earning $46 million. She was 6th position on the Forbes list and was $18.5 million less than former wrestler and actor Dwayne Johnson, who banked a whopping $64.5 million as the top actor.

This year, three women breached the $20 million mark, compared to four women in 2016.

The obvious gap in the gender pay check, according to Forbes, is mostly attributed to the fact that only few main female characters have roles in the superhero movies and blockbusters that pay the sizeable backend profits that end in leading men’s large paydays.

In late 2015, Jennifer Lawrence addressed the issue of the difference in pay from her male co-stars in an essay published on “Lenny letter”, the newsletter from Lena Dunham and Girls producer Jenni Konner. She said; “When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people..., I didn’t get mad at Sony, I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early.”

According to a research done by the University of Southern California’s journalism school in 2016, women fill only 28.7pc of all speaking roles. Furthermore, roles for women above the age of 40 are fewer and further between. This makes it even more important to note that 60pc of this year’s list are aged 40 and above. Many people may argue that this comes from the old-fashioned and false notion that films starring women do not sell.

Another reason for the disparity in paychecks is also attributed to the fact that women are also under represented in roles behind the camera, making up only 1.9pc of directors, 11.2pc of writers and 18.9pc of producers.

These disparities deepen further for women of colour, because of the imbalance in their representation in film. According to the Annenberg study, 4.9pc of speaking or named characters in the 100 top-grossing films of 2014 were Hispanic or Latino — a great under representation considering the same people comprise 17pc of the population. The number was slightly higher for Blacks and Asians, who stood at 12.5pc and 5.3pc, respectively.

“The only thing that separates women of colour from anyone else is opportunity,” said American actress and producer Viola Davis in one of her Emmy Awards acceptance speeches. Viola is the only black woman to be nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one, and is the only black actress to win the Triple Crown of Acting.

Earnings estimates for this list are based on data from Nielsen, ComScore, Box Office Mojo and IMDB, as well as interviews with industry insiders. All figures are pretax and scored between June 1, 2016, and June 1, 2017; fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted.

Hollywood has the opportunity to set an example for every industry with its powerful visibility as well as ability to trigger public debate. Actresses, writers and directors must continue to discuss the wage and opportunity gap they face. Only then might studios move beyond unequal pay for equal work.