In a new interview published by Empire, Sienna Miller revealed that Chadwick Boseman sacrificed some of his salary from the film 21 Bridges for the purpose of raising her pay.
“He was a fan of my work, which was thrilling, because it was reciprocated from me to him, tenfold," Miller said. "So he approached me to do it, he offered me this film, and it was at a time when I really didn’t want to work anymore. I’d been working non-stop and I was exhausted, but then I wanted to work with him.”
As you can see from that quote, filming came during a period in which she was reluctant to work. As she recalls, she had asked for a salary that the studio had not agreed with, but that Boseman (who also served as a producer for the movie) transferred some of his own pay to close the gap to the number she was seeking.
“I said, ‘I’ll do it if I’m compensated in the right way.’ And Chadwick ended up donating some of his salary to get me to the number that I had asked for,” she added. “He said that that was what I deserved to be paid.”
She further stated that the gesture was "the most astounding thing that I've experienced" in an industry in which "that kind of thing just doesn't happen." She says that she has opted to tell the story, after Boseman's death due to complications from colon cancer, to illustrate the type of person he was.
"He said, ‘You’re getting paid what you deserve, and what you’re worth.’ It’s just unfathomable to imagine another man in that town behaving that graciously or respectfully," she said. "In the aftermath of this I’ve told other male actor friends of mine that story and they all go very very quiet and go home and probably have to sit and think about things for a while. But there was no showiness, it was, ‘Of course I’ll get you to that number, because that’s what you should be paid.’”
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