Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is calling for equal pay for female costars, and he’s putting his money where his mouth is: He won’t accept any role in which his female counterpart isn’t paid the same.
And Cumberbatch is calling on his fellow actors to do the same.
“Equal pay and a place at the table are the central tenets of feminism,” the actor said in a Radio Times magazine interview.
“Look at your quotas,” he continued. “Ask what women are being paid, and say: ‘If she’s not paid the same as the men, I’m not doing it.’”
Taking the issue further, Cumberbatch said his production company SunnyMarch would begin concentrating on producing more female-centered dramas.
"I'm proud that [partner] Adam [Ackland] and I are the only men in our production company; our next project is a female story with a female lens about motherhood, in a time of environmental disaster. If it's centred around my name, to get investors, then we can use that attention for a raft of female projects," he told Radio Times. "Half the audience is female!"
Cumberbatch is an Emmy-winning actor who portrays Dr. Stephen Strange in Marvel's "Doctor Strange" and "Avengers: Infinity War."
Some Twitter users thought Cumberbatch was taking his campaign for equal pay too far.
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