Appearing on Chelsea Handler’s show on Wednesday, Hilary Swank spoke about one time she experienced the Hollywood gender wage gap, even after winning two Academy Awards for Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby. Swank isn’t the first actress to criticize the wage gap—fellow Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence wrote an open letter about the issue last year.
Handler hosted a dinner party for Netflix’s Chelsea in which she, along with Ava DuVernay, Connie Britton, Miss USA Deshauna Barber, and Swank talked about the pay gap and more. There Swank revealed she was once offered $500,000 for a role in a film, while her male co-star was offered $10 million because he was “hot” in another film.
"I win my second Academy Award, and the next couple of movies later, I get offered a movie, but the male [actor] hadn't had any kind of critical success but had been in a movie where he was hot," Swank said. "And he got offered $10 million, and I got offered $500,000."
Ultimately Swank passed on the role and it went to a newcomer who Swank said took $50,000 for the role. "They made a savings of $450,000, probably to give the guy his bonuses," Swank joked. Swank also revealed she got paid all of $3,000 for her starring role in Boys Don’t Cry, which wasn't even enough to have health insurance.
The Hollywood wage gap is only one of many manifestations of sexism in Hollywood. A recent study of 2015’s 100 highest grossing films found women only account for 32 percent of lead roles.
