Ellen Pompeo, Gina Rodriguez, Emma Roberts & Gabrielle Union Get Candid About Fair Pay
Ellen Pompeo, Gina Rodriguez, Emma Roberts and Gabrielle Union are on the cover of the latest issue of PorterEdit, out now.
Here’s what the four stars had to say…
Ellen, on fair pay: “We’re in very rarified air. Women with normal jobs are in different situations to us, so I sort of feel very out of touch or arrogant, even, to talk about my fight for my pay because I was in a very specific situation where I had a very real number. I had seen that Grey’s Anatomy had grossed 3.7 billion dollars over 15 years, and I could take that very real number and attribute my face, my voice. […] Even though we struggle in our industries, we’re struggling a lot less than, let’s say, people who are working normal jobs.”
Gabrielle, on fair pay: “You feel like a jackass; you feel like you should just be grateful and be quiet because it’s more [money] than others [make]. But at the same time, when those lists come out, when Forbes drops the top-paid actresses in television or the top-paid actresses in film, and there’s no women of color on it, it’s like well why didn’t you speak up?”
Emma, on fair pay: “I’ve taken less money knowing I’m taking less than a male costar, because they’re telling me this is as much as we’re going to give you; your male costar is getting more, if you don’t take this deal, another girl will. And I take it because I’m so passionate [about the project]. I was embarrassed to tell my friends, because what if my girlfriends are making as much money as their male costars.”
Gina, on fair pay: “I’ve recently been faced with being offered a project where my fellow actress was offered it prior [to me], and she tells me how much she was getting paid for it, and then I ask for the same amount and they say no because you’re not worth that much, and she was because she’s bigger than I am. But it’s the same job, the same amount of hours.”
For more from Emma, Ellen, Gina and Gabrielle, visit net-a-porter.com.
