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Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have a massive hit on their hands after Wicked made $114 million in its opening weekend in North America. The two stars shined in part one of the two-part production which likely fueled the internet rumors that surfaced about their salaries for the film adaptation.
Grande, who is more widely known to the general public, was rumored to have earned $15 million to play Glinda, according to the New York Post. As for Erivo, who is better known in Broadway circles, she reportedly earned $1 million for her show-stopping portrayal as Elphaba aka the Wicked Witch of the West. Well, it turns out the internet was wrong — a shocking twist of events!
Universal Pictures pushed back on the salary discrepancy narrative and shared a rare statement with Variety. “Reports of pay disparity between Cynthia and Ariana are completely false and based on internet fodder,” a Universal Pictures spokesperson said in a statement to the media outlet. “The women received equal pay for their work on Wicked.”
Equal pay is an important discussion in Hollywood, especially when it comes to paying Black actresses, who often earn far less than their white female co-stars. Octavia Spencer raised the red flag in 2018 with Jessica Chastain when they wanted to star in a Christmas comedy together. At the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s “Women Breaking Barriers” panel, the Oscar winner for The Help shared details of their financial discussion.
“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 said, via The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
Spencer continued, “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.” Together, they earned the same amount in a “favored nations” contract which resulted in both of them “making five times what [they] asked for.”
Spencer and Chastain stuck together much like Grande and Erivo have throughout the filming and press junket. It’s likely why Universal Pictures felt the need to speak up about honoring the women equally on a financial level. Fans don’t know exactly how much they earned for the first part of Wicked, but they can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that pay equality was honored for the box-office hit.
Before you go, click here to see all of the highest paid women in Hollywood!
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