May 13, 2018
Mexican actor says highly paid male stars would have to make sacrifices if they were serious about gender equality
Salma Hayek: male Hollywood stars should take pay cut
The Cannes Film Festival is one of the glamorous highlights of the silver screen’s year – a time for sun, stars and self-satisfaction.
But this year, the atmosphere is mutinous. On Sunday the Hollywood actor Salma Hayek became the latest to throw yet another grenade into the simmering gender debate, arguing that male movie stars would have to take pay cuts if they were serious about equal pay for women.
The Mexican-born actor, a leading voice in the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, said highly paid male stars would have to make sacrifices.
“It is not just the producers” who have to change if the huge pay gap is to be closed. “It is actors too,” she said.
“Time’s up. You had a good run, but it is time now to be generous with the actresses,” she told a Women in Motion talk at the festival.
“If actors ask such inflated fees it will leave nothing for actresses. If the movie’s budget is $10m, the [male] actor has to understand that if he is making $9.7m, it is going to be hard for equality,” Hayek added. “Otherwise they will kill the movie.”
With a laugh and the confidence of a woman unlikely to go short of work, she added: “I will be hated for saying this, [...] I hope I can get another job.”
Hayek – best known for Desperado and the indie hit Beatriz at Dinner – had accused the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of threatening to “break my kneecaps” after she spurned his advances on the set of her film Frida.
The actor and producer, who says she has sold a number of female-led projects she had been trying to make for 10 years since the Weinstein scandal shook up Hollywood, said real change was happening.
“The men are terrified. The predators are hiding. You feel this very palpable atmosphere,” she said.
It is not only Hayek who has been speaking out. On Saturday 82 women working in the film industry, including the head judge, Cate Blanchett, Ava DuVernay and Jane Fonda, stood in silence on the red carpet to protest at the festival’s lack of female directors.
The group, which also featured Kristen Stewart, the Wonder Woman director, Patty Jenkins, and Hayek, stopped halfway up the steps of the entrance to the Palais des Festivals to represent women’s curtailed advancement in the film industry.
“We are 82 women, representing the number of female directors who have climbed these stairs since the first edition of the Cannes film festival in 1946. In the same period, 1,688 male directors have climbed these very same stairs,” said Blanchett, reading out a collective statement alongside the veteran documentary-maker Agnès Varda. “The prestigious Palme d’Or has been bestowed upon 71 male directors, too numerous to mention by name, but only two female directors.”
Salma Hayek: male Hollywood stars should take pay cut
They called on institutions to provide safer working conditions for women, and for governments to uphold equal pay laws.
But women’s voices, long stifled, were suddenly in intense demand, said Hayek. It was currently difficult to hire known female writers and directors in the US, as studios were snapping them up trying to catch up with the public mood, she added, with women “jumping from the writers’ room to being showrunners” on television series.
But she warned that “pay disparity is going to take a while ... because they still want to pay you the exploitative salary they paid you before”, which was why women had to be impatient.
“We should have been angrier sooner. We should have come together sooner – that is what did it,” Hayek, who was nominated for an Oscar for Frida, told reporters.
She said Weinstein harassed her on the movie, which she produced, demanding that she do a “gratuitous” nude scene with another female actor. The disgraced mogul contested her claim, with Hayek insisting it was part of a ploy by his lawyers to try to discredit the “women of colour who complained about him”.
She said they had also targeted the testimony of the Black Panther star Lupita Nyong’o, knowing that “women of colour are believed less. It is a proven fact, unfortunately. Luckily there are so many of us, otherwise we would have been disbelieved.”
Hayek said men should not be afraid of change in the gender balance. “It is a very exciting time for men now. Because men have the opportunity to rethink what it means to be a man, and this comes with a lot of freedom,” she said.
“A lot of beautiful, peaceful men have been the victims of the bullying [by] men who think that the identity of a man has to do with violence,” the actor added. “A lot of men have suffered from that and have had to become that way too when they didn’t want to go in that direction.”
Hayek is a longtime champion for change in the film industry, having helped set up the Women in Motion talks at Cannes four years ago with her husband, François-Henri Pinault, the Kering luxury goods boss.
“We couldn’t have done it without a few good men like my husband,” she said, adding that it was “so sexy and unnerving when he comes up with ideas that I should have”.
Latest News
Top news around the world
Academy Awards

‘Oppenheimer’ Reigns at Oscars With Seven Wins, Including Best Picture and Director

Get the latest news about the 2024 Oscars, including nominations, winners, predictions and red carpet fashion at 96th Academy Awards

Around the World

Celebrity News

> Latest News in Media

Watch It
Olivia Munn Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Double Mastectomy Procedure | E! News
March 13, 2024
kUaEV1Kd3S0
Travis Kelce Shares Details From His Trip to Singapore With Taylor Swift | E! News
March 13, 2024
3YXi-Dgf4eg
Kate Middleton VIRAL Photo: Agency Addresses Photoshop Claims | E! News
March 13, 2024
S4VkO0TpkCY
Da'Vine Joy Randolph Plays 'Smash or Pass' With Iconic Moments From Her Career
March 13, 2024
vkPdJEF2BX4
Jean Smart Wears a Hotel Bathrobe to Present an Award to Hannah Einbinder l Power of Comedy SxSW
March 12, 2024
Bw7uVEYQev4
Lenny Kravitz Walk of Fame Ceremony
March 12, 2024
MlWq8BcnwhE
Dak Prescott Extortion Plot & Steph Curry for President? | TMZ Sports Full Ep - 3/12/24
March 13, 2024
jHFsrjs7OFY
A Japanese space rocket blew up after takeoff Tuesday, turning the sky into a fireball of smoke.
March 13, 2024
YkfJ3Qg8B7c
#KimKardashian and #BiancaCensori hung out at #KanyeWest's listening party Tuesday night!
March 13, 2024
EfwLLq6bx9k
‘Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond denies using Ozempic to lose 60 pounds
March 13, 2024
Omfjk1AlZ3A
Chrissy Teigen reveals her ‘boob lift scars’ in daring dress at Jay-Z & Beyoncé’s Oscars 2024 party
March 13, 2024
VxZ2qXAlpmU
Zoë Kravitz pokes fun at dad Lenny Kravitz's style during Hollywood Walk of Fame speech
March 13, 2024
j3-lcFu_1sQ
TV Schedule
Late Night Show
Watch the latest shows of U.S. top comedians

Sports

Latest sport results, news, videos, interviews and comments
Latest Events
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Atletico Madrid - Barcelona
17
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Manchester United - Liverpool
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Inter Milan - Napoli
17
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund - Eintracht Frankfurt
17
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Chelsea - Leicester City
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Roma - Sassuolo
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Verona - AC Milan
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Juventus - Genoa
17
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
SC Freiburg - Bayer Leverkusen
17
Mar
USA: Major League Soccer
Atlanta United - Orlando City
17
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
West Ham United - Aston Villa
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Rayo Vallecano - Real Betis
17
Mar
ENGLAND: Championship
Leeds - Millwall
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Las Palmas - Almeria
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Villarreal - Valencia
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Sevilla - Celta Vigo
16
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Darmstadt - Bayern Munich
16
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Manchester City - Newcastle United
16
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Fulham - Tottenham Hotspur
16
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Osasuna - Real Madrid
13
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Atletico Madrid - Inter Milan
12
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Barcelona - Napoli
12
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Arsenal - Porto
11
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Chelsea - Newcastle United
10
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Liverpool - Manchester City
10
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Real Madrid - Celta Vigo
10
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Aston Villa - Tottenham Hotspur
10
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Juventus - Atalanta
10
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Fiorentina - Roma
10
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
AC Milan - Empoli
09
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Werder Bremen - Borussia Dortmund
09
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Arsenal - Brentford
09
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Bologna - Inter Milan
Find us on Instagram
at @feedimo to stay up to date with the latest.
Featured Video You Might Like
zWJ3MxW_HWA L1eLanNeZKg i1XRgbyUtOo -g9Qziqbif8 0vmRhiLHE2U JFCZUoa6MYE UfN5PCF5EUo 2PV55f3-UAg W3y9zuI_F64 -7qCxIccihU pQ9gcOoH9R8 g5MRDEXRk4k
Copyright © 2020 Feedimo. All Rights Reserved.