Patricia Clarkson remembers exactly how she discovered that she was underpaid as an actress.
“About five, six years later, I finally asked my agent:” What is my paid male co-star? “”, She said on page six exclusively during a screening of the cinematographic company of her new film, “Lilly”, earlier this week.
The Oscar candidate, 65, was shocked by his response.
“He said,” You don’t want to know, “she recalls.
The star “Easy A” has immediately entered action.
“I started to make my agents question,” she said. “I started to demand an equal salary a long time ago. I would say: “Well, if (my male co-star) doing this … We have roles of similar size. »»
Clarkson remembered that producers would try to continue paying him less by saying that the male co-star “has more credits and I would say:” No, that does not steal. He has no more credits. “
The star of “High Art” said that her income had increased by 20% once she began to demand equality.
Equal Pay is at the heart of her new film, “Lilly”, in which she plays Lilly Ledbetter, an American activist who fought tirelessly against the discrimination of remuneration after discovering that she had been underpaid for decades while working for an Alabama tire plant.
The case made its way to the Supreme Court, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the very first law that President Obama signed when he came into office.
Clarkson refused to meet Ledbetter, who died last year at 86.
“I chose not to do it. I got it on such a high pedestal. I grew up in a family of five girls with a mother who was heading a city, “she said about her mother who was a New Orleans advisor and politician. “Lilly Ledbetter was God for us and I had to win the pedestal.”
Tony’s candidate said Ledbetter understood the decision and told him during a telephone call: “We will meet at the end.”
Clarkson hopes that the powerful message of the film resonates with “every woman across the country”.
Hillary Clinton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Katie Couric, Jim Parsons and John Slattery also attended the projection.
