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*During the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s “Women Breaking Barriers” panel Wednesday at the Sundance Film Festival featuring Octavia Spencer, Reed Morano, Sandra Oh, Cathy Schulman and “Queen Sugar’s” Tina Lifford, Spencer shared a story about how Jessica Chastain – her former co-star on 2011’s “The Help” and future co-star in an upcoming comedy for Universal – stepped up to ensure that she get equal pay for her work.
Read the details below via The Hollywood Reporter:
Spencer said Chastain approached her about working on a comedy together about 15 months ago and that the idea made sense to both because Chastain had wanted to do a comedy and Spencer wanted to “break out of period pieces.”
About six months later, Spencer said, they were talking together about pay equity. “I said, ‘But here’s the thing, women of color on that spectrum, we make far less than white women. So, if we’re gonna have that conversation about pay equity, we gotta bring the women of color to the table,’” she told attendees. “And I told her my story, and we talked numbers, and she was quiet, and she said she had no idea that that’s what it was like for women of color.”
Added Spencer, while choking down tears: “I love that woman, because she’s walking the walk and she’s actually talking the talk. [Chastain] said, ‘Octavia, we’re gonna get you paid on this film.”
Continued Spencer: “She said, ‘You and I are gonna be tied together. We’re gonna be favored nations, and we’re gonna make the same thing, you are going to make that amount.’ Fast-forward to last week, we’re making five times what we asked for.”
Watch the full story around the 19:30 mark, below.
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