Reese Witherspoon is responsible for bridging the HBO gender pay gap

And we’re not surprised in the slightest…

Reese witherspoon
(Image credit: Elizabeth Arden)

And we’re not surprised in the slightest…

Reese Witherspoon is the woman of the moment, from spearheading the Time’s Up movement to using her public appearances to call for better representation and roles for women in the film industry.

And with Big Little Lies season 2 filming already underway, we shouldn’t have too long to wait till she returns to our screens.

Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, the HBO show’s co-producers as well as its leading ladies, are set to be earning the big bucks for season two, reportedly taking around $1 million per episode.

But being champions of gender equality, it looks like they also ensured a significant pay rise for the whole BLL girl gang - with some said to be more than doubling their pay packets. Zoe Kravitz for instance took around $380,000 for the show’s first season, and will reportedly be taking $3 million for its second.

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But it looks like the duo - in particular Reese - had even more of an effect, with HBO executive Casey Bloys crediting them with bridging the HBO gender pay gap, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

‘Reese and Nicole had the vision to know what this would become,’ Bloys explained. ‘They brought us a jewel and their enthusiasm became infectious, not only with the Big Little Lies team but throughout all of HBO.

He continued: ‘One of the things that’s come out of thinking about the movement and some conversations with Reese, who’s really at the forefront, is something we’ve done recently. We’ve proactively gone through all of our shows — in fact, we just finished our process where we went through and made sure that there were no inappropriate disparities in pay; and where there were, if we found any, we corrected it going forward. And that’s a direct result of the Time’s Up movement.’

‘So, the thing that has been interesting about the whole movement is that it really is reminding everybody to do what’s right, and I think it’s retaining all of our thinking.’

Yet another reason to love Reese Witherspoon.

Jenny Proudfoot
Features Editor

Jenny Proudfoot is an award-winning journalist, specialising in lifestyle, culture, entertainment, international development and politics. She has worked at Marie Claire UK for seven years, rising from intern to Features Editor and is now the most published Marie Claire writer of all time. She was made a 30 under 30 award-winner last year and named a rising star in journalism by the Professional Publishers Association.