Octavia Spencer is putting Hollywood’s pay gap on blast, and she’s using her own receipts to do it. On Keke Palmer’s podcast, Spencer recalled developing a Christmas movie with Jessica Chastain, her former The Help co-star. The two got to talking about their salary histories, and Chastain was shocked by how little Spencer had been paid over the years. That conversation led to a“favored nations”deal in 2018, an arrangement where both actresses got paid equally. According to Spencer, it earned her five times her original ask.
Spencer also explained how the gap shows up structurally. By the time a film’s budget trickles down to actors, she said, white actors get dollars while Black actors get cents. So she’s built her own rules around it: when the upfront fee is low, she negotiates backend participation. And she’ll only accept a small paycheck for a project that’s her own labor of love, never for someone else’s. Palmer pointed out the piece that makes inequality so hard to fight, which is that you can’t see what you’re missing without pay transparency.
Spencer’s story lands far beyond Hollywood. Whether you’re in an office, a restaurant, or a writers’room, not knowing what your colleagues make makes it nearly impossible to know if you’re being treated fairly. Her advice boils down to something simple: talk to each other, and know your number.
Have you ever discovered a pay gap at your own job? How did you handle it?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.