- Ellen Pompeo believed her $20 million annual wage on Gray’s Anatomy to be celebrated as a win for equal pay, however was warned earlier than her 2018 Hollywood Reporter interview went dwell that not everybody would help her success. Pompeo highlights the double normal in how girls’s earnings are scrutinized in comparison with males’s, whereas emphasizing the significance of utilizing her monetary energy to uplift others.
When Gray’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo confirmed she was being paid greater than $20m a yr for her work on the present, she hoped it could be celebrated as proof of equal pay coming to Hollywood.
Nonetheless, earlier than The Hollywood Reporter interview—which revealed Pompeo’s $575,000 an episode revenue, plus a seven-figure signing bonus and fairness factors within the sequence estimated to be value $13m—went dwell, Pompeo was warned by her supervisor that she might not get solely constructive suggestions.
On the time, Pompeo instructed the Reporter the deal had been struck as she took on the solo lead position of the medical drama, named after her character.
“I’ve lastly gotten to the place the place I’m OK asking for what I deserve,” Pompeo stated on the time.
However in a current podcast interview with Alex Cooper’s ‘Name Her Daddy’, Pompeo mirrored that she hadn’t thought-about her success would not be celebrated by her friends.
She defined: “My supervisor stated on the time one thing to me that actually hit me like a brick. He stated: ‘Are you able to be unpopular?’ He was like: ‘I do not need you to suppose that everybody’s going to go in and cheer for you and clap for you and bow to you, and suppose you are the dopest ever, trigger there’s going to be lots of people who should not joyful for you.’
“That had by no means occurred to me … That was good prep for me as a result of it is true that not all people—and different girls have stated [this] publicly—like usually it is onerous for folks to have a good time different folks if they’ve one thing that resembles one thing they need.”
Her sentiments have been echoed by Cooper, who herself was topic to scrutiny when it was revealed she had signed a minimum of a $60m contract to maneuver her podcast from Barstool to Spotify.
Cooper once more made headlines when her three-year cope with Spotify got here to an finish, and she or he signed a $125m cope with SiriusXM to deliver her rising media empire—Unwell—to the brand new platform.
“I do not suppose I am ever going to get comfy with the quantity being on the market,” Cooper stated. “My first contract when the quantity was leaked, I used to be … so proud that individuals know as a result of it stands for a lot. However you then get this wave of negativity, and I say it on a regular basis … that males simply don’t expertise this degree of scrutiny on the subject of cash.
“You may have Jeff Bezos and Elon and Trump and all of those males get to simply fucking shit cash in entrance of our faces and everybody thinks it is scorching and highly effective. After which the minute we get any of it—not even within the ballpark, we’re simply flippantly getting part of the dialog—it is like: ‘She does not deserve that. Both she’s a bitch, she’d discovered a technique to maneuver it trigger she”s not value that. And it is loads.”
Pompeo added: “It is patriarchy and it is misogyny.”
A community of energy
It appears Hollywood isn’t any totally different from the myriad of different industries which have a gender pay hole—in 2019, a research discovered that feminine stars, on common, earn $1.1m lower than their male co-stars of comparable expertise.
Not solely was Pompeo defying the norm by revealing her revenue, however she was additionally bucking the development by being so extremely paid as a lady.
And he or she’s eager to make her affect rely, she added: “What helps me is to … take myself out of it. While you make some huge cash as a lady, let’s face it, you may have energy. So how can I take that energy and do good with it? How can I amplify another person? How can I carry up another person who does not sit within the place of privilege that I sit in?”
Pompeo added that she does not attempt to management the response of others and as a substitute focuses on “utilizing your energy for good.”
Backing up worth with information can be a lesson Pompeo has discovered and inspired others to do the identical.
She defined: “I do not need something that I do not deserve, I do not need something that I have not labored for. The CAA (Inventive Arts Company) print out a report … they usually let precisely how you progress the needle.
“I see precisely how a lot Gray’s Anatomy makes for ABC Disney, I get to see the quantity. Then it is my face, it is my voice, I’ve executed a lot work selling the present everywhere in the world for the previous 20 years …. I’ve the information to again [it] up. I do know the present generated this a lot cash, I positively deserve a share of that.”
“It’s difficult for ladies to advocate for themselves in several disputations and jobs as a result of for those who can’t amount how what you do contributes to the revenue of that firm, it is tougher to battle for your self and say I deserve this.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
