The Academy Award nominee appeared on theGrio’s “Acting Up with Cortney Wills” podcast to discuss her latest project.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s latest project is here. “Origin,” from filmmaker Ava DuVernay, hits theaters Jan. 26, and theGrio’s Cortney Wills caught up with the actress ahead of its release, breaking down what she hopes a film like “Origin” can do for audiences and her perspective as a Black woman working in Hollywood.
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“I like the aloneness of that,” she continued. “So I don’t need someone picking me up. She needs that. She feels that she needs that for her safety, so I feel that we need different things and we need to allow that to be the case.” She later recalled how after shooting “King Richard” she had expressed to her co-star Will Smith that she felt she was not paid enough, and he went into his own “pocket” and doubled her pay, which she explained “still wasn’t enough” compared to her white counterparts.
“It still wasn’t enough compared to what my contemporaries get paid, it’s not the same,” she explained when referring to other white actors her age like Cameron Diaz who can retire. “They can say, ‘No, I don’t want to act anymore.’ Then they can retire. I can’t retire. I still have to work. I have people depending on me, there’s still things that I need to do … I have to continue to work and that shows the gross, you know, inequity in pay in our industry.”
The latest episode of “Acting Up” featuring Wills’ conversation with Ellis-Taylor is available to stream now wherever you get your podcasts.
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The post Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor on ‘Origin,’ pay disparity for Black actresses in Hollywood: ‘I can’t retire’ appeared first on TheGrio.
