Hollywood Gender Wage Gap: Kate Winslet Says Talking About It Is ‘Vulgar’

The Hollywood gender wage gap has been recently unearthed through the latest Sony hack. It was revealed that while a majority of the workforce is women, they earn less than a fifth of the income.

Men have usually had the most prominent roles in the business, from James Bond to Iron Man. As director Paul Feig may have discovered, though, this could also work to the advantage of a business looking to cut costs. His regular recasting of Melissa McCarthy in everything may be a result of this.

More and more actresses are getting unhappy about the idea, though. According to Variety, Kathy Griffin, the comedic star of Suddenly Susan, learned three seasons in that the wages weren’t anywhere near fair between the genders. Though she had a starring role, Kathy realized she “had the second-lowest salary on the cast. Judd Nelson made four times what I made, and he ended up getting fired.”

Kathy says she had gone to her employer and fought over her version of the Hollywood gender wage gap, and came out better off in general. “I got a raise,” she says. “I still didn’t make equal to what the guys were making.”

Jennifer Lawrence was the brave woman who put the issue into the public spotlight, having a major role in two high profile franchises where she wouldn’t likely be replaced. Despite being both Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games) and Mystique (X-Men), her role in American Hustle still paid only a fraction of what her co-stars earned. Her co-star, Bradley Cooper, came out and stood up for the actress, as previously reported by the Inquisitr, “She worked everyday on that movie and got paid nothing. It’s really horrible actually, it’s almost embarrassing. She should have been paid more than everybody.”

Sony co-chair Amy Pascal doesn’t seem to have a problem with the Hollywood wage gap, and has called it a business.

“People want to work for less money, I’ll pay them less money.”

Titanic star Kate Winslet doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with it either, according to the Huffington Post.

“I’m having such a problem with these conversations. I understand why they are coming up but maybe it’s a British thing. I don’t like talking about money; it’s a bit vulgar isn’t it?

“And if I’d ever been in that situation I would have either dealt with it or removed myself from it. I find all this quite uncomfortable. I haven’t ever felt that I’ve really had to stick up for myself just because I’m a woman.”

Being British might have nothing to do with it, as Harry Potter star Emma Watson has found herself involved in the same conversation. She openly confessed to gender discrimination in her career, aiding those fighting Hollywood’s gender wage gap.

In dismissing talk about it as ‘vulgar’ Kate Winslet has accidentally shown why we have a pay gap in the first place https://t.co/me7Dza4rGq

— Independent Voices (@IndyVoices) November 12, 2015

This also might have something to do with the severe lack of female directors in the business. Many of them have had great films to their name, but they rarely get chosen for major films. Those usually go to Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, and others that Jennifer Lawrence has selectively called “the lucky people with d***s.”

The Hollywood gender wage gap could easily be one of the greatest revolutions in the film industry. Unlike Kate Winslet, chief executive of analytics company SumAll Dane Atkinson believes transparency could solve the issue quickly.

“Salary transparency is the single best protection against gender bias, racial bias, or orientation bias.”

Thanks to Jennifer Lawrence’s open letter to the industry, other gaps could be exposed and lead to equality throughout. If enough women, blacks, gays, and others talk about it, they could easily force an end to the Hollywood gender wage gap, as well as other gaps.

[Photo via Michael Kovac / Getty Images]