Hollywood has a gender pay gap problem just like the rest of the workforce, as has been thoroughly demonstrated with recent data revelations, and Netflix’s Grace and Frankie is no different—in terms of sharing that problem. What is different—and surprising—is that the show has two headlining female leads and still can’t break the pay gap mold.
Tomlin and Fonda’s (character) names literally comprise the new comedy’s title, but they’ve found out they’re still being paid the same salary for the show as their costars, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. Grace and Frankie become friends in the show when their husbands leave them for each other, but Fonda and Tomlin are currently bonding over their own real-life issue. Fonda told Zap2it at a Netflix press event before the show’s premiere, “[Tomlin] found out [Waterston and Sheen] are getting the same salary that we are. That doesn’t make us happy.”
To which Tomlin added, “No. The show is not ‘Sol and Robert’—it’s Grace and Frankie.”
This is especially disappointing given how excited we were that Netflix was making a comedy show about two women above the age the movie and TV industries usually deem acceptable—as well as our happiness with Netflix in general with its seeming ability to freely break standard cable TV norms wherever it sees fit. We expected better from you, Netflix.
(Although Grace and Frankie‘s production company, Skydance Productions, may be more to blame.)
Either way, the fact that two women starring in a TV show is only enough to get them up to an even level of pay as their male costars says a lot about how much more there is to be done for pay equality. Tomlin said, “Even in little increments [things for women in film and TV have] changed, [but] there’s still a lot to do and care about.”
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