The Hard Truth About Hollywood's Black Pay Disparity.
Veteran actress Taraji Henson recently sparked renewed debate about equal pay for Hollywood's black artists. But trying to change Hollywood isn't the answer. There's a much better way.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious about what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost. I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired.”
Taraji P. Henson has every right to be tired. And angry.
An award-winning 25-year veteran of TV and film, Henson’s range and fiery charisma have afforded her a career that would be the envy of any actor. Working at such a high level comes with challenges and pressures usually hidden from the public, who usually only see the perks of fame. But during a promotional interview for The Color Purple on Gayle King’s SiriusXM radio show, the normally vivacious Henson revealed that something was broken.
The actress burst into tears when describing what she views as subpar pay, as well as subpar working conditions behind the scenes of The Color Purple, produced by billionaire Oprah Winfrey (who won an Oscar for her performance in the 1988 Stephen Spielberg film).
Henson’s emotional remarks quickly went viral, nearly overshadowing the film, and ignited intense discussion about Hollywood’s racial pay gap. Veteran actresses from Gabrielle Union to Viola Davis have all weighed in on the matter, claiming that a racist and sexist entertainment industry is not paying them what they’re worth.
But the harsh reality is that “the industry” will never pay them what they’re worth.
They would do best to follow the example set by other performers, who’ve learned to increase their worth.
BE A PRODUCER, NOT AN EMPLOYEE
No matter what level of success, actors are independent contractors hired by the studio. If they happen to be incredibly famous, a studio will make a multimillion dollar investment in that actor, in hopes they’ll get a return on that investment. But typically, unless the actor raises their own money and produces their own work, they will be at the whim of the production company, and at the mercy of whatever deal their agent/manager can negotiate.
In short, actors are temporary employees, in a world where fortune always favors owners and producers.
Will Smith co-founded Overbrook Studios in 1998 with his business partner, after envisioning exactly the kind of movie career he wanted. The studio would go on to produce or co-produce some of Smith’s most popular films, such as Hancock, I, Robot, Hitch and The Pursuit of Happyness.
Tyler Perry wrote, produced, and starred in his own stage plays, incurring huge financial risk and overcoming multiple failures to eventually build a dedicated black fanbase (as they say, “niches make riches”). He would go onto make his own movies and produce his own TV shows, powering through intense criticism of his work to eventually open his own studio in Atlanta, amassing an estimated net worth of $1,000,000,000.
While Shonda Rhimes—one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Hollywood—spent some of her younger days acting, she was always a writer, and later on became a prolific producer, whose resume includes popular shows such as Scandal, Bridgerton, How to Get Away with Murder, and Grey’s Anatomy, a show which has enjoyed one of the longest runs in television history.
Issa Rae is a powerful actress, but it was her self-produced web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl that put her on the map (garnering attention from none other than Shonda Rhimes), leading to her acclaimed work on HBO’s Insecure. Despite recent setbacks and cancellations, Rae is a serial entrepreneur, whose work outside of the entertainment industry includes ownership of a string of coffee shops in Los Angeles, a vegan haircare line, and a newly-launched prosecco brand.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Life isn’t fair, and the entertainment industry is even less fair than that. There are mediocre performers who land a job that sends their children’s children to college, while the barista slinging lattes might be the next Marlon Brando. Even Brando’s teacher, the legendary Stella Adler, claimed she had students who were even more gifted than one of America’s most celebrated actors—they just never got the breaks that Brando did.
In that context, even artists of the caliber of Taraji Henson and Viola Davis would do best not to place estimations of their worth in the hands of studio executives who care nothing about them. Despite their justifiable frustrations, one hopes these gifted women know that there’s an audience eager to support them and their work—they just need to take the risk, become artist-entrepreneurs, and serve them directly by producing their own work.
The sooner they do, the sooner they’ll learn that the collective intelligence of the audience is far, far greater than the centralized hivemind of trend-chasing studio executives.
Stay free.
~CD
This needed an executive summary to convince me I need to care about Hollywhiners. Maybe I should.
There must come a lot together to win alone. And yet it’s possible. Great article 👍