Mo'Nique, an Oscar winner, took Netflix to task over the weekend for allegedly offering her a mere $500,000 for an exclusive comedy special.
"Amy Schumer was offered $11 million," Mo'Nique pointed out. "Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, $20 million." Mo'Nique also called on fans to boycott the streaming service for "gender bias and color basis."
In the days since her initial video statement, Mo'Nique has shared box office stats—including a comparison between Schumer's Snatched and her own Almost Christmas—to further her argument. Snatched, she noted, earned just under $46 million domestically against a budget of $42 million. Meanwhile, Almost Christmas did $42 million against a budget of just $17 million.
Tuesday, Jada Pinkett Smith spoke out in support of Mo'Nique's comments and urged those who didn't agree with her boycott to take a closer look. "You don't have to like Mo'Nique's approach," she said. "You don't have to agree with her boycott but don't allow all of that to make you blind to the fact that non-white women and impoverished white women are underpaid, underrepresented, and undervalued EVERYWHERE by EVERYONE."
The controversy surrounding Mo'Nique's pay gap revelation arrives on the heels of a another discrepancy surrounding the production of Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World. Not only did star Michelle Williams receive eight times less than Mark Wahlberg for nearly equal screen time during the original shoot, she was also paid an astronomically lower amount for post-Kevin Spacey reshoots.
