Taraji P. Henson, Mo’Nique, Gabrielle Union, and Octavia Spencer. Many Black actresses have been vocal about pay disparity in Hollywood with these women being some of the latest to address the issue.
As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Henson was transparent about her debating on whether to quit acting.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the costs,” Henson said in a Sirius XM interview with Gayle King. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to. The math ain’t mathin’.”
Henson isn’t the only one who has faced the unfortunate reality of stepping back from being an actress due to Hollywood’s pay gap. During an appearance on NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute,” Jada Pinkett Smith shared that while her “heart broke” for Henson, she was also happy that she was courageous enough to speak up. In addition, she related to her fellow actress’ sentiments, but in a different way.
“One of the things with Taraji — she is the breadwinner of her family,” Pinkett Smith said. “Her pressures would be different than mine. I have to put that out front because if it’s time to walk away, you can’t — you can’t always. That’s not always the solution, you know what I mean? You can’t. ‘Cause what people don’t understand as well, with us, as Black entertainers, we carry a lot of people with us.”
Although Pinkett Smith’s situation has been a bit different because she’s not the sole breadwinner in her household, she agreed that she still has faced things other Black actresses have, such as not being offered the same pay as her white counterparts in the industry.
“People would literally say, ‘well, you don’t need it, you’re married to Will’… I’ve heard that several times,” Pinkett Smith recalled to host Brittany Luse.
Based on her experience, Pinkett Smith has stepped more into being a producer and making an impact behind the scenes. However, she clarified that she isn’t opposed to acting but is intentional about her screen roles. What’s more, she revealed that she has been thinking about getting into directing.
