Chadwick Boseman Took Pay Cut To Give Sienna Miller Salary She 'Deserved'
Weeks after Chadwick Boseman’s death, those who knew him are continuing to memorialize a man who more than lived up to his superhero alter ego.
The “Black Panther” actor starred opposite Sienna Miller in one of his final films, “21 Bridges,” which he also produced. Boseman died in August at age 43 after a four-year battle with cancer.
Miller is revealing the instrumental role Boseman played in securing her an equitable salary on the film, which she described as the “most astounding thing that I’ve experienced” in the film industry.
“I didn’t know whether or not to tell this story, and I haven’t yet. But I am going to tell it, because I think it’s a testament to who he was,” Miller shared with Empire magazine in a tribute to the late actor published on Monday.
The British actor said that when the studio denied her initial salary demand, Boseman stepped in to donate part of his own paycheck to ensure that she got what she “deserved to be paid.”
“This was a pretty big-budget film, and I know that everybody understands about the pay disparity in Hollywood, but I asked for a number that the studio wouldn’t get to,” Miller explained. “And because I was hesitant to go back to work and my daughter was starting school and it was an inconvenient time, 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. He said that that was what I deserved to be paid.”
“That kind of thing just doesn’t happen,” she continued, recalling he told her that, “You’re getting paid what you deserve, and what you’re worth.”
Boseman was the one who actually approached Miller to star in the film alongside him, she said, and was “really active” to get her to come aboard.
“He was a fan of my work, which was thrilling, because it was reciprocated from me to him, tenfold. So he approached me to do it, he offered me this...
