DEVASTATING: Hollywood’s Shocking Pay Gap

AVA DUVERNAY & HILARY SWANK DISCUSS HOLLYWOOD’S SHOCKING PAY GAP

(Oct. 19, 2016 Megan Lasher at motto)
Wednesday’s episode of Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show, Chelsea, features a star-studded dinner party where Handler sits down with Ava DuVernay and Hilary Swank, among other notable women. In a clip provided by CNN, they dive into the massive pay gap in Hollywood, revealing personal experiences with inequality.

DuVernay begins by talking about Selma, which she says was a “big jump” for her because of how high the film’s budget was. “I was the seventh director they asked. All the men before me said no,” she said. She went to tell a fellow director about her news, and he admitted that he was also given a high-budget film—Jurassic World.

Hilary Swank was also candid about her salary struggles. “When I did Boys Don’t Cry, I was 24 years old, I made $3,000. In order to have health insurance, you have to make $5,000,” she told the table. “I had an Academy Award, no health insurance.”

“A couple movies later, I get offered a movie, but the male hadn’t had any kind of critical success,” she said. “He had been in a movie where he was ‘hot.’ And he got offered $10 million, and I got offered $500,000.”