Michelle Williams Reportedly Got Paid Less Than 1% of Mark Wahlberg’s ‘All the Money’ Reshoot Salary
J. Paul Getty is known for adamantly refusing to pay his grandson’s kidnappers the random they demanded. Greed is the monster festering at the center of Ridley Scott’s retelling of the famous incident in All the Money in the World, and, so it seems, also behind the scenes. When Scott made the decision to recast Kevin Spacey’s lead role and reshoot a portion of the film with Christopher Plummer just weeks from release, it quickly turned into a pricy affair; a $10 million one to be exact. Supporting players Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg both agreed to return for the hasty reshoots, however a new report reveals a shocking pay gap between the two. While Wahlberg got paid millions for the 10 days of work, Williams’ reshoot salary was reportedly a measly $1,000.
Back in November, The Washington Post reported that Williams was getting paid a fraction of what her costar did. The paper reported that while Williams, Plummer and other actors on the shoot allegedly agreed to modest salaries, Wahlberg negotiated for a much bigger cut. According to that story, The Greatest Showman actress was getting paid somewhere in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” range for her last-minute work on the movie, but USA Today has a new report with even more shocking numbers.
According to the USA Today story, Williams allegedly earned $80 per day of reshoots for a total of $1,000, while Wahlberg received – drum roll – $1.5 million. If you don’t believe the gender wage gap is real, there’s a cold hard example of a woman (who, by the way received a Golden Globe nomination for her work, which Wahlberg did not) getting paid less than 1 percent of her male co-star. Are you screaming and pulling your hair out yet?
Scott previously told USA Today that he, along with the cast, had agreed to forego additional payment to get the movie done on time. “They all came in free,” he said. “Christopher had to get paid. But Michelle, no. Me, no.” And it sounds like that was the original plan. Williams also told the magazine that she simply wanted to help get the project finished. “I said I’d be wherever they needed me, whenever they needed me,” Williams previously said. “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’s unclear what happened after that, but that initial Washington Post piece describes that “Wahlberg insisted on, and received a much higher sum” for the reshoots.
Actual numbers aside, the very fact that Williams said she would show up for such a major ask sans payment – while juggling her production schedule on Sony’s Venom, by the way – simply because of her dedication to the project, and that Wahlberg would insist on more money says enough. I honestly didn’t even enjoy All the Money in the World, but I’d implore you to seek it out if just to admire the work that Scott and his cast and crew put into completing the project, and to appreciate Williams’ work. Take it from Jessica Chastain; Williams, one of out most talented actors working today, deserves a heck of a lot better than 1 percent of her male co-star’s salary.