Bryce Dallas Howard says she was paid ‘so much less’ than co-star Chris Pratt for the Jurassic World franchise.
Jurassic World is a trilogy of films that follow on from Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park movies, released from 1993 to 2001.
The franchise centers on disastrous attempts to create cloned dinosaurs from prehistoric DNA.
The first Jurassic World film (2015) is estimated to have made a staggering $1.6 billion worldwide, and at the time of its release was the third-highest-grossing film of all time.
Howard and Pratt were cast as leads in the sci-fi action movies, signing deals for the trilogy that included Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion.
Despite the trilogy being so high-profile, Howard says she was ‘at a great disadvantage’ when it came to her salary.
In the follow-up series, 22 years have passed and Jurassic World, a dinosaur theme park, now exists.
Howard plays the role of Claire Dearing, a workaholic operations manager and one of the scientists researching the dinosaurs.
Since becoming a household name, Howard has spoken about her time filming the Jurassic World movies, and how she was paid significantly less than her male co-star.
A 2019 study, by Dr. Sofia Sanchez, John S. Heywood, and Maria Navarro Paniagua, uncovered a gender pay gap in Hollywood.
It found that ‘female stars earned on average $2.2m less per film,’ however, a myriad of factors were taken into account, such as the movie’s genre and the actor’s overall popularity.
Sharing her own experiences, 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.”
In 2018, Variety reported that for the sequel Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Howard was paid $8 million whereas Pratt made $10 million.
Although the actress never disclosed what she really made from the movies, she claims she was paid even less than originally reported.
She told Insider: “The reports were so interesting because I was paid so much less than the reports even said, so much less.”
She revealed that Pratt fought to level the field regarding franchise opportunities like video games and theme park rides.
The actress explained: “Whenever there was an opportunity to move the needle on stuff that hadn’t been already negotiated, like a game or a ride, he (Pratt) 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.’
“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 actress reprised her role for voice parts in video games, rides, and series such as Lego Jurassic World, Lego Dimensions, Lego Jurassic World: The Indominus Escape, Jurassic World Evolution, Jurassic World: The Ride, and Jurassic World Evolution 2.
Howard isn’t the only Hollywood star to speak up about pay discrepancies.
Jessica Chastain said her paycheck for the 2015 film The Martian was incorrectly reported and she ‘made less than a quarter of that in reality.’
The actress roughly made $1.75 million for her role while lead co-star Matt Damon made anything from $15 to $25 million.
