--- title: Jessica Chastain Helped Octavia Spencer With the Wage Gap description: Jessica Chastain helped Octavia Spencer negotiate for five times her original salary for their upcoming holiday comedy. canonical: https://time.com/5118504/jessica-chastain-octavia-spencer-wage-gap/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-25T17:36:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:50.089Z og:title: Jessica Chastain Helped Octavia Spencer Get a Huge Pay Raise og:description: "She’s walking the walk and she’s actually talking the talk" og:url: https://time.com/5118504/jessica-chastain-octavia-spencer-wage-gap/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45c699694945c704/6988f974fb4eac7aae8956df/octavia-spencer-jessica-chastain-salary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: NBC's "75th Annual Golden Globe Awards" - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jessica Chastain Helped Octavia Spencer Get a Huge Pay Raise twitter:description: "She’s walking the walk and she’s actually talking the talk" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45c699694945c704/6988f974fb4eac7aae8956df/octavia-spencer-jessica-chastain-salary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Jessica Chastain Helped Octavia Spencer Get 5 Times Her Salary For Their Movie Together > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7a46747d-9e9a-4730-b740-25457990c4fc&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Mark Wahlberg Donates $1.5 Million to Time's Up in Michelle Williams' Name After Pay Gap Controversy [Watch (HLS stream): Mark Wahlberg Donates $1.5 Million to Time's Up in Michelle Williams' Name After Pay Gap Controversy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KRxqSRdV.m3u8) (1:41)  _Published 2018-01-13. Mark Wahlberg has decided to donate $1.5 million to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which combats harassment and pay inequities in Hollywood_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 25, 2018 5:36 PM UTC  BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 07: 75th ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS -- Pictured: Actors Octavia Spencer (L) and Jessica Chastain arrive to the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018\. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 07: 75th ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS -- Pictured: Actors Octavia Spencer (L) and Jessica Chastain arrive to the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018\. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) Kevork Djansezian/NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 25, 2018 5:36 PM UTC [Jessica Chastain](http://time.com/5091776/golden-globes-red-carpet-sexual-harassment/) has long been [vocal about demanding equal pay for equal work](http://variety.com/2017/film/news/jessica-chastain-equal-pay-tips-1202032277/) when it comes to gender, but now she’s taking into account that women of color are even more marginalized by the wage gap. During a [Sundance Film Festival panel](http://time.com/5112259/ruth-bader-ginsburg-metoo-sundance-film-festival/) called “Women Breaking Barriers,” Spencer talked about how during a spirited discussion about their salaries for their upcoming [holiday comedy film](http://variety.com/2018/film/news/jessica-chastain-octavia-spencer-new-movie-holiday-comedy-1202659285/), Chastain learned this. And she’s taking action with that in mind, thanks to some enlightenment by her good friend and co-star [Octavia Spencer](http://time.com/collection-post/5022019/octavia-spencer/). “We were talking about pay equity with men and women,” Spencer said. She was like, ‘It’s time that women get paid as much as men’. I’m like, ‘Yeah Jessica, it’s time!’ We were dropping F-bombs and getting it all out there. And then I said, ‘But here’s the thing, women of color on that spectrum, we make far less than white women. So, if we’re gonna have that conversation about pay equity, we gotta bring the women of color to the table’. And I told her my story, and we talked numbers, and she was quiet, and she said she had no idea that that’s what it was like for women of color.” Upon learning about the greater disparity, Chastain took immediate action and negotiated for the pair to make the same salary on their upcoming film, resulting in both women making five times what they were initially offered. “I love that woman, because she’s walking the walk and she’s actually talking the talk,” Spencer said. “She said, ‘Octavia we’re gonna get you paid on this film…You and I are gonna be tied together. We’re gonna be favored nations, and we’re gonna make the same thing.’ Fast forward to last week, we’re making five times what we asked for.” Watch Spencer’s full speech below. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5118504/jessica-chastain-octavia-spencer-wage-gap/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5118504/jessica-chastain-octavia-spencer-wage-gap/"},"headline":"How Jessica Chastain Helped Octavia Spencer Get 5 Times Her Salary For Their Movie Together","datePublished":"2018-01-25T17:36:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:50.089Z","description":"\"I love that woman, because she’s walking the walk and she’s actually talking the talk\"","url":"https://time.com/5118504/jessica-chastain-octavia-spencer-wage-gap/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","viral","wage gap","Jessica Chastain"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45c699694945c704/6988f974fb4eac7aae8956df/octavia-spencer-jessica-chastain-salary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45c699694945c704/6988f974fb4eac7aae8956df/octavia-spencer-jessica-chastain-salary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NBC's \"75th Annual Golden Globe Awards\" - Arrivals","caption":"NBC's \"75th Annual Golden Globe Awards\" - Arrivals","creditText":"Kevork Djansezian/NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5118504/jessica-chastain-octavia-spencer-wage-gap/","name":"How Jessica Chastain Helped Octavia Spencer Get 5 Times Her Salary For Their Movie Together"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Mark Wahlberg Donates $1.5 Million to Time's Up in Michelle Williams' Name After Pay Gap Controversy","description":"Mark Wahlberg has decided to donate $1.5 million to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which combats harassment and pay inequities in Hollywood","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KRxqSRdV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-01-13T20:53:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KRxqSRdV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5118504/jessica-chastain-octavia-spencer-wage-gap/","duration":"PT1M41S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5118504/jessica-chastain-octavia-spencer-wage-gap/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```