Liam Neeson’s promo tour for The Commuter seems to be causing more outrage than excitement about the film.
During his interview on Ireland’s The Late Late Show, Liam said that sexual harassment allegations in Hollywood were turning into a ‘witch hunt’, and defended Dustin Hoffman against allegations of inappropriate behaviour on set, claiming touching a colleague’s breast was ‘childhood stuff’.
Now, comments have emerged in which the actor admits that men need to be part of the solution for the gender pay gap – but refuses to take a pay cut.
In an interview with the Associated Press, the 65-year-old said of the gender pay gap: ‘There’s a lot of discussion about it and a lot of healthy and necessary discussion about it because the disparity sometimes is fucking disgraceful.
‘We’re starting and it’s starting with these extraordinary actresses and brave ladies and we as men have got to be part of it. We started it, so we have to be part of the solution.’
However, when asked whether he would take a pay cut, Liam said: ‘Pay cut? No, no, no, no, no. That’s going too far. There has to be parity; there just has to be.’
Many people on social media have hit out at his comments, although some have defended him.
One person tweeted: ‘The point is absolutely not that he won’t take a pay cut, it’s that the women should be paid just as much as him!!! Liam Neeson RIGHTLY refusing a pay cut is not the problem to focus on here.’
Neeson’s comments come as it emerged that Mark Wahlberg was paid 1,000 times more than his All The Money In The World co-star Michelle Williams for reshoots.
As the cast returned to reshoot scenes for the movie after Kevin Spacey was replaced by Christopher Plummer, Wahlberg’s team negotiated a reshoot fee of $1 million.
However, Williams – who is represented by William Morris Endeavour, the same agency as Wahlberg – was paid $1,000.
It has been claimed that this pay disparity was down to contract negotiation, rather than a gender pay gap.
A source told People: ‘Once the Spacey situation happened, Michelle nicely, wholeheartedly and voluntarily made herself available for reshoots and in turn was paid the per diem reshoot rate. As for Mark, and because he had casting approval, he decided to take advantage of that part of his contract and renegotiate his overall movie fee before filming with Christopher Plummer could proceed.
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‘It wasn’t that he was paid an extra million for the reshoot while Michelle and all the other costars were just paid per diem for the reshoot. He opted to renegotiate his overall deal.
‘So in this case, it isn’t a male/female pay gap issue, but rather a huge A-list star, who was already being paid way less than his usual quote, using his contract and his say in casting to negotiate an overall bigger paycheck.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted Neeson’s rep for comment.
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