Michael Caine on gender pay gap: ‘It’s rubbish – Elizabeth Taylor got 10 times more than I did’

Speaking out: Michael Caine thinks the gender pay gap is 'rubbish'
Anthony Harvey/Getty Images
Jennifer Ruby17 June 2016
The Weekender

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Michael has slammed the gender pay gap debate, claiming that it’s ‘rubbish’.

The British acting legend has claimed that former co-star Elizabeth Taylor was paid ’10 times’ the salary that he was for 1972 film X, Y & Zee.

When asked about the pay equality debate, in which A-listers including Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Watson and Patricia Arquette have called on Hollywood to close the gap, Caine told The Mirror:

“It’s rubbish. I worked with Elizabeth Taylor and she got 10 times more than I did – and that was over 30 years ago.

“I don’t agree about the pay gap because she got a lot more money than me.”

Caine and Taylor starred opposite each other in Brain G Hutton’s film in the early seventies, when they were both 40 years old.

Speaking about actors’ wages in an interview with the Daily Mail back in 2010, Caine said:

“Movie stars only get $1,000 a time for the hard work: the hours in make-up, the end-less takes, the craft, the experience, the star billing – the other $1 million is for the publicity and, believe me, we earn every cent.”

Arquette was one of the first actresses to speak publically about the difference in salaries between men and women when she collected her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress last year.

She told the crowd: “To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s time to have wage equality once and for all.”

The debate gained traction back in 2014 when the Sony hack revealed that Lawrence had been paid significantly less than her male co-stars for her role in American Hustle.

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