Michelle Williams isn’t the most outspoken, public figure in Hollywood. Much like the women she portrays on screen, the actress is often seen as a bit timid and shy, in comparison to some of the more wild actors that will go on talk shows and humiliate themselves for a plug. However, when the issue of the Time’s Up movement and the pay disparity between men and women is brought up, Williams is on the front line to spread the good word.
Recently, the actress spoke during an equal pay event that was put together by Rep. Nancy Pelosi and various Congresspeople. And when you talk about equal pay, one of the more public stories in recent memory involves the disparity between Williams and her co-star Mark Wahlberg for the film “All the Money in the World.”
READ MORE: Mark Wahlberg Donates $1.5 Million To Time’s Up After ‘All The Money’ Scandal
“It’s the kind of story I would normally resist: the morality tale with a happy ending, or rather a happy beginning because that’s really why I’m here,” Williams said (via Yahoo). “There won’t be satisfaction for me until I can exhaust my efforts ensuring that all women experience the elevation of their self-worth and its connection to the elevation of their market worth.”
She continued, “In late 2017, the news broke that I’d been paid less than $1,000 compared to the $1.5 million that my male counterpart had received for the exact same amount of work. And guess what, no one cared. This came as no surprise to me, it simply reinforced my life-learned belief that equality is not an inalienable right and that women would always be working just as hard for less money while shouldering more responsibility at home.”
When she learned about the pay disparity on the film, the actress said she was “paralyzed in feelings of futility.”
The Academy Award-nominated actress began to discuss that even though she’s reached levels that few in the industry have reached as a female, Williams still feels like she was undervalued and cast aside due to her gender. And that’s when she talked with Jessica Chastain and brought her story to the public.
“I’ve been a working actress since the age of 12. I’ve been accredited by my industry at the highest levels and that still didn’t translate to equal compensation. Months passed and the actress Jessica Chastain, with whom I had in fact played sisters, offered to take my story to her Twitter,” Williams said.
She added, “Jessica’s audience was much wider than mine and she wasn’t afraid to pick up a megaphone and be heard. Heard she was, there was an uproar and a public shaming within my industry that resulted in a $2 million donation to the Time’s Up Defense Fund.”
The “donation” she is referencing is from Wahlberg, who donated his salary to the cause after being publicly shamed for the disparity.
Michelle Williams can next be seen in the upcoming FX series “Fosse/Verdon.”
Tune in as actor Michelle Williams joins House Democrats for an #EqualPayDay event calling on the Senate to hold a vote on the #PaycheckFairnessAct! https://t.co/ZiK2LjmWnS
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 2, 2019