Olivia Colman: I’d be paid more if I was Oliver, says actress – as she hits out at gender pay gap
Olivia Colman has criticised gender pay disparity, saying if she was a man, she would be earning “a f*** of a lot more than I am”.
The Oscar-winning actress, who starred as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, was also scathing about the long-held idea that male actors draw more people to cinemas.
Colman, 50, was asked on CNN’s Christiane Amanpour programme about women being taken more seriously in Hollywood.
She said: “Research suggests that they’ve [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 used to say they 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.”
Colman added: “I’m very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I’d be earning a f*** of a lot more than I am… I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000% difference… do the maths.”
She was on the news show to talk about her new film Wicked Little Letters – about the true story of poisoned pen messages that hit the town of Littlehampton in West Sussex in the 1920s.
Adam Sandler was the highest paid actor of 2023, earning $73m (£57m) thanks to his Netflix film Murder Mystery 2 and his stand-up comedy tour, according to the US business magazine Forbes’ annual list.
Margot Robbie was the second highest earner on $59m (£46m) after starring in and producing the blockbuster Barbie.
The only other woman in the top 10 was Friends star Jennifer Aniston, who placed sixth with $42m (£33m).
Tom Cruise was third on the list, earning $45m (£35m) after the latest in the Mission: Impossible series movie, while Barbie star Ryan Gosling and Oppenheimer actor Matt Damon both placed fourth with $43m (£34m).
Leonardo DiCaprio, Denzel Washington, Jason Statham and Ben Affleck made up the rest of the top 10.
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Olivia Colman on reading negative reviews
Colman, who won an Academy Award for 2018’s The Favourite, has complained about pay disparity and other double standards in the industry before.
She told the Radio Times podcast last month that “some of the biggest-grossing films, Barbie, Bridesmaids, Thelma & Louise, are led by women”.
She said: “People say men get paid more because they get more bums on seats. That’s a lie! It can be proved in the box office. I don’t know why we’re still having to discuss it!”
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
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