Wonder Woman Actor Gal Gadot Says Her Biggest Struggle Has Been To Fight Gender Pay Disparity In Hollywood.

Wonder Woman Actor Gal Gadot Says Her Biggest Struggle Has Been To Fight Gender Pay Disparity In Hollywood.

I’ve been working for almost a decade now, and still do not understand why salaries are such a secretive topic. Salary negotiations are kept so under wraps, you’d think they were nuclear codes that could trigger a wold war. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could use Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth on HR personnel to get the real truth out? Because God knows we need it, considering this lack of transparency is one of the biggest devices that allow pay disparity between men and women to exist. And not even the star of a successful franchise about a female superhero is exempt from it. Gal Gadot recently said that her biggest struggle as a woman has been to get paid the same money as her male costars.

 

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The actor has come on-board as an executive producer for National Geographic’s six-part short-form documentary Impact with Gal Gadot. The series aims to highlight stories of resilient women from all over the world. During a virtual global press conference for the series, the 35-year-old actor was asked what her biggest struggle as a woman has been. And this is what Gadot responded:

“My biggest struggle as a woman has been equal pay as my male co-stars, (all of) whom I love so much. As a woman, that has been the biggest thing. As a human being, I have struggled with many other problems. But the thing that I fought for the most, was equal pay with my male stars.”

This isn’t the first time that her pay for the DC film, producer by Warner Bros. Pictures has been a topic of discussion. Back when the 2017 film was smashing Box Office records, there was conversation that Gal Gadot was paid lesser than what her male counterparts were paid for portraying similar roles on screen. In fact, around the release of the sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, the franchise director Patty Jenkins also spoke about how she had to firmly push to be paid what she deserved and was even ready to walk away from the film if she didn’t get paid what she asked for.

“It was easy to find that all of the men not just had quotes, they’d made an independent film and then a first [superhero] movie. They got paid seven times more than me for the first superhero movie. Then on the second one, they got paid more than me still. It was an easy fight to say, ‘This can’t be. It super can’t be. And it really can’t be on ‘Wonder Woman.’ It was an interesting thing to do, but it was an easy thing to do in the fact I was dead serious. If I can’t be victorious in this regard, then I’m letting everyone down. And if not me, who? So it became something I became very, very, very passionate about.”

Also Read: Wonder Woman 1984 Director Patty Jenkins Was Ready To Walk Away Over Pay Disparity. Can We Please Pay Women Their Dues?

Since Jenkins did end up directing the sequel, we now know that she might have gotten what she demanded. But the fact that she even had to ask for it, instead of her work being respected enough to be automatically acknowledged, like any male director’s would be, is what makes this entire situation a blot on Hollywood’s claims of being progressive. Because it proves that they’re simply hollow claims without there being any substantial actions to uphold it on the part of studios.

Gal Gadot is not the only female actor to speak up about the unequal pay issue in Hollywood. Several others, like Emma Watson, Salma Hayek, and Jennifer Lawrence have also called it out in their interviews. There are also male actors, like Benedict Cumberbatch, who have iterated that they will take only projects that practice equal pay, which further highlights how the male actors also play an important role, in breaking down this gender pay disparity.

Earlier this month, Gal Gadot was once again in the news after a story on Hollywood Reporter cited sources claiming Justice League director Joss Whedon “pushed Gadot to record lines she didn’t like, threatened to harm her career and even disparaged Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins”. It is to be noted that Whedon has been accused of abuse and misconduct by Justice League actor Ray Fisher, who plays Cyborg, as well as actors like Charisma Carpenter, who worked with Whedon on shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel.

Responding to the story, Gal Gadot said “I had my issues with [Whedon] and Warner Bros handled it in a timely manner.”

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Jinal Bhatt

A Barbie girl with Oppenheimer humour. Sharp-tongue feminist and pop culture nerd with opinions on movies, shows, books, patriarchy, your boyfriend, everything.

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