In 2018, it was reported that Bryce Dallas Howard earned significantly less than co-lead Chris Pratt for “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” — she made $8 million to his $10 million. However, while doing press for the latest “Jurassic World” installment, Howard revealed that the actual “Fallen Kingdom” gender pay gap was much wider.
“The reports were so interesting because I was paid so much less than the reports even said, so much less,” Howard told Insider. “When I started negotiating for ‘Jurassic,’ it was 2014, and it was a different world, and I was at a great disadvantage. And, unfortunately, you have to sign up for three movies, and so your deals are set.”
Howard talked about the pay disparity with Pratt, and, as she told the source, he fought for her to get equal pay for other franchise properties that weren’t contractually binding, including video games and theme park attractions.
“Chris and I have discussed it, and whenever there was an opportunity to move the needle on stuff that hadn’t been already negotiated, like a game or a ride, he literally told me: ‘You guys don’t even have to do anything. I’m gonna do all the negotiating. We’re gonna be paid the same, and you don’t have to think about this, Bryce,'” the “Rocketman” actress recalled. “And I love him so much for doing that. I really do, because I’ve been paid more for those kinds of things than I ever was for the movie.”
The push for equal pay has been a larger part of the conversation in recent years, yet women are still regularly paid less than their male co-stars, or are simply not paid what they deserve. Just last week, Neve Campbell opened up about declining to return as Sidney Prescott in the upcoming “Scream 6” due to the salary negotiations.
“I did not feel that what I was being offered equated to the value that I bring to this franchise, and have brought to this franchise, for 25 years,” she told People. “And as a woman in this business, I think it’s really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued.” She continued, “I honestly don’t believe that if I were a man and had done five installments of a huge blockbuster franchise over 25 years, that the number that I was offered would be the number that would be offered to a man.” Campbell added, “And in my soul, I just couldn’t do that. I couldn’t walk on set feeling that — feeling undervalued and feeling the unfairness, or lack of fairness, around that.”
Howard’s best-known on-screen credits include “Black Mirror,” the “Twilight” franchise, and “The Help.” As a director, she has worked on “The Book of Boba Fett” and “The Mandalorian” and helmed the documentary “Dads.” Next, she is attached to direct a gender-swapped reboot of “Flight of the Navigator.”
