Emma Stone had some allies in her own “Battle of the Sexes” who helped her secure equal pay.
“In my career so far, I’ve needed my male co-stars to take a pay cut so that I may have parity with them,” Stone, 28, told Out magazine. “And that’s something they do for me because they feel it’s what’s right and fair. That’s something that’s also not discussed, necessarily — that our getting equal pay is going to require people to selflessly say, ‘That’s what’s fair.’ If my male co-star, who has a higher quote than me but believes we are equal, takes a pay cut so that I can match him, that changes my quote in the future and changes my life.”
She added, “It’s a difficult system because it depends on the kinds of films you’re a part of, the size of your role, how much the movies make at the box office. And so much of that changes your pay throughout your career, so I go more to the blanket issue that women, in general, are making four fifths at best.”
Stone admitted that filming “The Battle of the Sexes,” in which she stars as tennis legend Billie Jean King, made her think a bit harder about the gender wage gap in general, especially within the context of Donald Trump’s ascent to the presidency.
“We began shooting in the spring of 2016, when there was still a lot of hope in the air, and it was very interesting to see this guy — this narcissistic, self-focused, constantly-stirring-the-pot kind of guy — against this incredible, qualified woman, and at the same time be playing Billie Jean, with Steve [Carell] playing Bobby Riggs … those parallels make sense to me — the equal-pay issue makes a lot of sense to me. At our best right now we’re making 80 cents to the dollar.”
Stone didn’t reveal which Hollywood gentlemen took cuts to increase her salary.