When Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain discussed pay for a holiday comedy in March 2017, Spencer explained how much less women of color earned than white women. They compared numbers. Spencer said Chastain hadn’t known how wide the gap was.
Chastain’s response was to link their deals so they’d receive equal pay. Recalling the conversation at a Sundance panel on January 24, 2018, Spencer said Chastain promised they’d be “tied together,” with “favored nations” terms, and would “make the same thing.”
They’d been friends since meeting at Chastain’s audition for The Help. Spencer went on to win the 2012 supporting-actress Oscar for that film; Chastain was nominated in the same category.
For the holiday comedy, Chastain also had a producing role. She and Kelly Carmichael developed the story about 2 women trying to get home for Christmas, and Spencer and Chastain pitched it together. Universal acquired the project after competing with Fox and Paramount.
At Sundance, Spencer said the deal had reached “five times what we asked for.” In a separate post, she described her own pay as “5x my salary” because Chastain “stood with me.” Those were Spencer’s descriptions of the increase; neither woman’s original offer was disclosed.
Spencer also said she didn’t know whether linking their deals had cost Chastain anything in her own rate.
Chastain explained that Spencer “had been underpaid for so long” that tying their deals together could help raise the amount Spencer could command. She ended her post with a request: “Men should start doing this with their female costars.”