Michelle Williams' important pay gap conversation

23 May 2019

Michelle Williams says her fight for pay equality is "the most important thing" she's ever been involved in.

Michelle Williams

The 38-year-old actress became involved in the mission to close the gender pay gap after she was paid a fraction of the money given to her co-star Mark Wahlberg for reshoots of 'All the Money in the World', and has said she feels "closer" to conversation than she does "any work [she's] ever done".

She said: "It's been, I would say, as far as anything that's happened in my life publicly, it's the most exciting and most important thing that I've ever been involved in. And I'm so moved personally and professionally to have found my place in the conversation and my voice through the conversation and to feel like I've grown up inside the conversation. It's the thing that I'll feel the closest to more than any work I've ever done."

The 'Venom' star was invited to deliver a speech at Capitol Hill last month for Equal Pay Day, and has said she was amazed to see the way her story made people understand the gap better.

She added: "Something that was interesting that was said to me there was that they were so grateful for me coming to tell this story because it's hard to see, when you're talking about $10 versus $14, people have a hard time hearing the difference but when you use an example as extreme as mine, it brings the entire case to come home to rest. The larger example can speak to the other examples."

Michelle also explained that the opportunity to get involved with the pay gap conversation came through her friendship with #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, whom she took as her date to the 2018 Golden Globe Awards.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter for their latest Roundtable series, she said: "It all happened very quickly. When we went to the Golden Globes and we took these activists as our dates, we all became friendly, we all just sort of stayed in touch. And one of them reached out to me and she said, 'Hey, are you available in three days to come down and do this thing,' and I said, 'For you, yes. I'll get rid of everything else I was supposed to do and I'll come.'"