Charlize Theron Bridges Hollywood Pay Gap Following Sony Hack

January 13, 2015
Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth at the Golden Globes
Photo: John Shearer, AP

It’s been over a month since last year’s Sony hacks resulted in The Interview being pulled from major theaters and a massive amount of information that the studio would have rather kept quiet becoming public knowledge. However, one positive that has slowly emerged from the hacks has been a wider recognition of the vast inequality in pay between male and female actors.

After the news broke that American Hustle stars Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams received seven percent of the film’s back-end profits while their male counterparts all earned nine percent, Page Six recently reported that Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron negotiated that be paid the same amount as her male co-star Chris Hemsworth, who shares the screen in their upcoming film The Huntsmen. Theron was in fact able to raise her salary to a deal worth over $10 million, which is the same amount that Hemsworth is receiving.

While it is unclear what Theron was earning before the hack revealed Hemsworth’s salary, after the news broke Theron and her agents insisted that she receive the same due to her fantastic track record at the box office. The Huntsmen, which is being released by Universal Pictures, is a prequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman and is slated for an April 2016 release.