Emma Stone has revealed that several of her male co-stars have, in the past, taken pay cuts so that they were on an even wage, while at the same time aiding her career.
The Academy Award winning actress, who picked up the gong for her performance in La La Land, didn’t name the actors that took a pay cut, but did add that they’d selflessly done so in order to make working conditions fair.
“In my career so far, I’ve needed my male co-stars to take a pay cut so that I may have parity with them. 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’,” the 28-year-old explained.
“If my male co-star, 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. 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.”
Emma Stone made this admission to Out Magazine while promoting her latest film Battle Of The Sexes, which tells the true story of tennis player Billie Jean King (Stone)’s historic triumph over Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) in 1973.
In the past Emma Stone has starred opposite a laundry list of Hollywood A-listers from Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland, Joaquin Phoenix in Irrational Love, Michael Keaton and Edward Norton in Birdman, Bill Murray in Aloha and Ryan Gosling in Gangster Squad, La La Land and Crazy, Stupid, Love.
We can only speculate about which one of the above actually took a pay cut to help out Emma Stone, but since Andrew Garfield was dating her for Amazing Spider-Man 2, Ryan Gosling is just an all-round delight and Steve Carell is clearly a sage and kind gentleman, my money would be on them.
Battle Of The Sexes will be released in the US on September 22.
