I'd be paid more if I was Oliver, actress says

LONDON

Oscar-winning British actress Olivia Colman has said she would be paid "a lot more" for her films if she was a man.

"I'm very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I'd be earning a... lot more than I am," she told CNN. "I know of one pay disparity which was a 12,000 percent difference. Do the maths."

The issue of equal pay in Hollywood burst into the open a decade ago, but the latest top 10 list of the best-paid actors contains just two women.

Speaking to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Colman said: "Research suggests that they [women] have always been big box office draws.

"Don't get me started on the pay disparity, but male actors get paid more because they [executives] used to say they [male actors] draw in the audiences. And actually that hasn't been true for decades. But they still like to use that as a reason to not pay women as much as their male counterparts, particularly in our industry."

Colman joined the Hollywood A-list in 2019 when she won the best actress Oscar for playing Queen Anne in “The Favorite,” and has since had two more nominations.

She recently appeared in the Wonka film and will feature in the forthcoming “Paddington In Peru.”

Her TV credits include “Heartstopper” and” Secret Invasion,” and she played Queen Elizabeth II in series three and four of Netflix's “The Crown.”

There was an outcry when it was revealed that Colman's predecessor as the monarch, Claire Foy, was paid less than her on-screen Duke of Edinburgh, Matt Smith. At the time, producers promised that would not be the case for Colman and co-star Tobias Menzies.