Actress Judi Dench has weighed in on the gender equality debate saying that women “are put in our place.”
The Oscar-winning actress, 82, has said that she believes the gender pay gap in Hollywood will never disappear, even if stars continue to speak out.
While she said that pay equality is “better now than it’s ever been,” she said women are still “put in our place” when it comes to being paid the same as male actors.
Speaking to Good Housekeeping, she said, “Salary, parts, you name it.”
“It’s better now than it’s ever been, I think, but it will never be on a parity.”
“Never.”
“No matter how much we speak out.”
“We are put in our place.”
Dench’s comments come after it was revealed that Mark Wahlberg, the highest paid male actor, earned $42 million more than Emma Stone, the best-paid actress.
Mark Wahlberg, best known for roles in Transformers and Ted, earned $68 million last year, making him the highest paid actor of 2016.
This is compared to the $26m (£20m) for the best-paid woman, Emma Stone.
The world’s 10 highest-paid actors earned a total of $488.5m (£380.5m) in the past year, Forbes magazine calculated.
That figure is nearly three times more than their female counterparts, who took home $172.5m (£134m) between them.
Stone recently revealed that male co-stars have previously taken a pay cut to ensure wage equality.
Stone, 28, admitted that these actors took a lower fee because they believed that it was the ‘fair’ thing to do.
Promoting her new film, Battle of the Sexes, she spoke about gender equality in an interview with OUT magazine. She said, “In my career so far, I’ve needed my male co-stars to take a pay cut so that I may have parity with them.”
