One of the most thrilling stories in the wake of Hollywood’s reckoning with sexual misconduct was the swift action taken by Ridley Scott to reshoot Kevin Spacey’s scenes in All the Money in the World after more than 30 people described allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and rape by the actor. With just four weeks before the movie was set to premiere, Scott and his cast and crew spent nine exhaustive days reshooting the film with Christopher Plummer, Spacey’s replacement in the role of J. Paul Getty. And they pulled it off: All the Money in the World hit theaters nationwide during the holiday season as intended.
In interviews, Scott said that he “refused to get paid” and that the actors, aside from the newly installed Plummer, returned for free. However, USA Today reported Tuesday that star Mark Wahlberg was paid an extra $1.5 million for the reshoots, while his costar Michelle Williams worked for nothing but a per diem, making just $1,000 over the nine days of filming. Do the math: Walhberg was paid 1,500 times more than his female costar.
“I said I’d be wherever they needed me, whenever they needed me,” Williams told USA Today in December. “And they could have my salary, they could have my holiday, whatever they wanted. Because I appreciated so much that they were making this massive effort.” It seems that Williams chose to waive her normal fee as a show of solidarity and in support of the decision to erase Spacey from the film — Wahlberg, on the other hand, did not. (Both actors are represented by the same agency, William Morris Endeavor.)
On Tuesday night, the enormous discrepancy in pay was widely blasted on social media from those within the industry, including Judd Apatow, Amber Tamblyn, Mia Farrow and Jessica Chastain.
Williams and Wahlberg’s pay discrepancy is emblematic of the issues that are still plaguing the film industry, in which women alone have been saddled with the burden of addressing the abuses of power perpetrated by men in Hollywood. Williams chose to make a statement, just as Laura Dern, Natalie Portman, and Oprah Winfrey made statements at the Golden Globes on Sunday. Meanwhile, Wahlberg did no such thing — just as the male winners at the Globes chose to remain silent, satisfied that their Time’s Up pins were enough.
