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Chadwick Boseman gave part of his salary to ‘21 Bridges’ costar Sienna Miller
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Sienna Miller(L) and Chadwick Boseman poses during a photo call for '21 Bridges' at The Fulton on November 19, 2019 in New York City. (AFP/Brad Barket)
When it came to gender pay disparity, Chadwick Boseman put his money where his mouth was, according to Sienna Miller.
The actress recalled how the “Black Panther” star chose to pay part of her fees from his own pocket when he hired her for cop thriller “21 Bridges,” Empire reported on Sept. 28. Boseman was a producer and actor in the said movie.
Miller said she “didn’t know whether or not to tell this story,” but decided to after his death, “because I think it’s a testament to who he was.” Boseman died on Aug. 28 after battling colon cancer.
The “Alfie” star shared her admiration for him, stating, “He was a fan of my work, which was thrilling, because it was reciprocated from me to him, tenfold.”
She said he offered her the film “at a time when I really didn’t want to work anymore.”
“I’d been working non-stop and I was exhausted, but then I wanted to work with him,” she said.
Miller looked back on her salary concerns, considering the gender pay gap in the movie industry. “This was a pretty big-budget film, and I know that everybody understands about the pay disparity in Hollywood, but I asked for a number that the studio wouldn’t get to.”
“And because I was hesitant to go back to work and my daughter was starting school and it was an inconvenient time, I said, ‘I’ll do it if I’m compensated in the right way,” she said. “And Chadwick ended up donating some of his salary to get me to the number that I had asked for. He said that that was what I deserved to be paid.”
“It was about the most astounding thing that I’ve experienced. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen,” she said, still in awe of his decision.
“He said, ‘You’re getting paid what you deserve, and what you’re worth.’ It’s just unfathomable to imagine another man in that town behaving that graciously or respectfully,” she said, adding that “there was no showiness” about his act.
“In the aftermath of this I’ve told other male actor friends of mine that story and they all go very very quiet and go home and probably have to sit and think about things for a while,” she noted.
While Boseman may be best known for playing groundbreaking Black superhero King T’Challa a.k.a. Black Panther, he dedicated his craft to portraying Black icons such as baseball player Jackie Robinson, soul singer James Brown and the first African-American Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.
This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
