Hilary Swank was once offered 5% of her male co-star’s pay for a strange reason. She has two Oscars over him

An Academy Award-winning actor is usually well-paid, but this might not hold true for women in Hollywood. In 2016, Hilary Swank shared that she was offered only 5% of what her male counterpart made because he looked "hot" in a film. Swank, who has two Oscars in her kitty, one for "Boys Don't Cry" and another for "Million Dollar Baby", talked about Hollywood's gender pay gap in an episode of Netflix's talk show, "Chelsea". 

Pay Gap in Hollywood

In the episode, comedian and actress Chelsea Handler hosted a dinner party along with Ava DuVernay, Connie Britton, Miss USA Deshauna Barber, and Swank. While a lot was talked about, the group touched upon the subject of the pay gap in Hollywood. 

Swank revealed she once got an offer of $500,000 for a role in a film, while her male co-star was offered a whopping $10 million, for a bizarre reason. "The male [actor] hadn't had any kind of critical success but had been in a movie where he was hot, and he got offered $10 million, and I got offered $500,000," Swank said during the show, as per USA Today. 

She further revealed that the sheer pay gap led to her passing over the role and it ultimately went to a newcomer. Swank claimed that the new actress was paid even less, just $50,000. "They made a savings of $450,000, probably to give the guy his bonuses," Swank joked.

Further in the episode, Swank revealed she got paid only $3,000 for her Oscar-winning role in "Boys Don’t Cry". She said it wasn't enough at the time for her to get even health insurance. 

"So I didn’t even know that I didn’t have health insurance until I went and tried to get a prescription filled,” Swank recalled. "I had an Academy Award, no health insurance,” she quipped.

The Hollywood pay gap is real

Back in 2015, a fellow Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence became a flagbearer of the movement against Hollywood's gender pay gap. She spoke out about the pay disparities in the movie "American Hustle" in which she starred alongside Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper.

According to a 2019 report, the gender pay gap in Hollywood was estimated to be $1 million between male and female actors in the 18 to 50 age group. The same went up to nearly $4 million for actors over and in their 50s. 

Earlier this year, both Olivia Colman and Kristen Dunst spoke out about their experiences as well. Speaking on CNN’s “The Amanpour Hour," Colman said that while people argued that male actors are paid more because they draw an audience, it hasn't been the case for decades.

"They still like to use that as a reason to not pay women as much as their male counterparts,” "The Crown" star and Oscar winner said.  “I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000% difference. Do the maths, I know," she added. 

Meanwhile, "Spiderman" star, Dunst also shared her similar experience with BBC. While talking about the 2002 superhero movie, she said she "didn't even think" of asking about the pay gap when she starred opposite Tobey Maguire. The actress said that even at age 17, she had seen more screen success than her co-actor but was still paid less.