Actor Taraji P. Henson has gone viral after opening up about the pay inequality and poor treatment she routinely endures, even after achieving her stature in Hollywood.
Henson, a multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and Oscar nominee, became visibly emotional while talking to Gayle King for SiriusXM about how she is so frustrated by the unfair treatment she faces that she's considered giving up acting altogether.
Joined by her costar Danielle Brooks in one of the most hotly anticipate films of the year, the film adaptation of the Broadway musical The Color Purple, Henson broke down how much less she is paid than her White and male colleagues, and just how quickly that money is gobbled up by taxes and business liabilities.
Taraji P. Henson May Quit Acting Over Pay, Treatment in the Entertainment Industryyoutu.be
Henson told King:
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, being paid a fraction of the cost."
"I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired.”
She then addressed a common misconception—that because she's a celebrity, she's rolling in cash. But being a big-name actor is an incredibly costly business—and when you're not paid on the level your colleagues are, the money goes fast.
Henson said:
“I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing."
“Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. The fact that we’re up here, there’s a whole entire team behind us. They have to get paid.”
She then explained that, of the big paydays we hear about for celebrities, roughly 80% goes to taxation and payments to their agents, lawyers, managers and other staff required just to have a career in Hollywood in the first place.
That is, of course, before paying for things like security staff and the sort of residences celebrities must live in in order to be safe and have privacy.
Worse still, Henson says that no matter the status she achieves, when it comes time to negotiate for her next role, she is often treated as a novice. She told King:
“It seems every time I do something and I break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate, I’m at the bottom again, like I never did what I just did. And I’m just tired. It wears on you, you know?”
In 2019, Henson revealed that her $500,000 asking price for her Oscar-nominated role in 2008's The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button was talked down to $150,000.
After taxes and fees to agents and other staff, her take-home pay would have been roughly $30,000 for a film that required three months of shooting, plus months of extensive travel for festivals and awards shows.
Henson said she also worries for younger stars "coming up behind me," saying she doesn't want them to have to "have the same fights" that she and fellow Black actors Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer have to undergo again and again.
On social media, Henson's words drew an outpouring of support, as well as similar stories from her fellow Hollywood colleagues.
For all of Hollywood's talk about modernization and diversity, there certainly are a lot of Black entertainers sharing very similar stories of being underpaid and disrespected in comparison to their White counterparts.
When will the industry practice what it preaches?
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