Just two days after USA Today reported that Mark Wahlberg made $1.5 million for All the Money in the World re-shoots—while his co-star Michelle Williams made less than $1,000—it’s now being reported that Wahlberg used his clout to hold up production until he got his hefty fee. According once more to USA Today, Wahlberg had co-star approval in his contract; he allegedly refused to approve the casting of Christopher Plummer—who was tapped to replace Kevin Spacey, ousted from the film following sexual misconduct allegations—until Wahlberg got all his money.
“What he said was, ‘I will not approve Christopher Plummer unless you pay me.’ And that’s how he (expletive) them,” one person with knowledge of the situation told USA Today.
Another source told USA Today that Wahlberg’s lawyer “formally vetoed the Oscar winner [Plummer] in a letter to financiers until his demand for additional payment was met.” The team was reportedly able to fight for the hefty fee because re-shoots were not included in Wahlberg’s initial contract, though a source told the paper that re-shoots were in the fine print all along. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wahlberg initially took a pay cut to star in the film, receiving 80 percent of his typical fee (around $15 million per movie). He later used that, in addition to his status as a blockbuster draw, to negotiate a $1.5 million fee for the re-shoots.
These allegations bring a cynical new layer to this unfolding drama, which has tainted Ridley Scott’s Hail Mary move to save the movie after Spacey allegations threatened to derail the entire project. What was once known mostly as an impressive salvo—and a key page of the playbook for navigating the heady waters of the post-Weinstein movement—has morphed into yet another example of Hollywood’s outrageous gender wage gap. The news about Wahlberg’s payday also broke just days after the 75th Golden Globes, to which actresses like Williams wore black and brought outspoken female activists as their dates. Williams and Plummer also happened to be Globe-nominated for their performances in All the Money; Wahlberg was not. Just a few days later, Olivia Munn mocked Wahlberg’s hefty fee at the Critics’ Choice Awards in a bit that skewered the men of Hollywood who haven’t spoken up about the Time’s Up movement.
Wahlberg has earned a reputation over the years for fighting for a stacked salary. Just last year, he was named the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, according to Forbes, pulling in about $68 million for the year; you don’t earn that title without an aggressive team of negotiators.
Both Williams and Wahlberg are represented by the William Morris Endeavor agency, but have different agents. A previous report from USA Today said that Williams’s team was not told that Wahlberg was negotiating his fee for the re-shoots. Williams, by contrast, reportedly made herself easily available for the re-shoots, which took place around Thanksgiving.
“I said I’d be wherever they needed me, whenever they needed me,” she told USA Today. “And they could have my salary, they could have my holiday, whatever they wanted. Because I appreciated so much that they were making this massive effort.”
Representatives for Wahlberg and Williams have not yet responded to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
