HBO has solved issues of pay disparity for Evan Rachel Wood and now Thandie Newton as their salaries now match that of Westworld co-stars Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris.
“They’re all happening right now, and yeah, we’re all equal across the board,” Newton said to Vanity Fair. “It’s really exciting. It’s unprecedented. It’s—goodness; it shatters so much calcified pain, resentment, frustration. It just shatters it.”
Not only is Newton thrilled that HBO has taken concrete steps to set an example in the entertainment industry for equal pay, but she is refusing to commit to any future projects that pay men more than women for performances with the same billing.
“I wouldn’t do anything if it didn’t. Definitely not,” she added. “F*ck that. It literally sets a precedent, and [HBO is] leading the way, which is amazing.”
The announcements from Woods and Newton followed a statement from HBO executive Casey Bloys that says the network had resolved all discrepancies in pay in its shows as a “direct result” of the Time’s Up movement and encouragement from Reese Witherspoon. “We just finished our process where we went through and made sure that there were no inappropriate disparities in pay,” Bloys said, “and where there were if we found any, we corrected it going forward.”
The second season of Westworld premieres April 22 at 9 PM on HBO.