Chadwick Boseman gave Sienna Miller part of his paycheck to close pay gap

In a newly published interview, actress Sienna Miller revealed that Chadwick Boseman gave a portion of his earnings to encourage her to appear in the movie “21 Bridges.”

Exactly one month after Boseman died of complications from colon cancer, Empire magazine published the interview with Miller. Miller starred as detective Frankie Burns in “21 Bridges,” a thriller released in November 2019. Boseman starred as detective Andre Davis and co-produced the film.

“He ... had been really active in trying to get me to do it,” Miller told Empire. “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 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.”

Miller, who has appeared in a number of shows and films, had recently been working on movies “American Woman” and “The Catcher was a Spy” in addition to TV miniseries “The Loudest Voice.”

She said to be compensated properly, she approached executives with what she thought was a fair number.

“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 told the magazine. "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.”

Miller said she wasn’t sure whether or not to talk about Boseman’s intentional act of kindness, but ultimately she decided to share because “it’s a testament to who he was.”

“It was about the most astounding thing that I’ve experienced,” she said. “That kind of thing just doesn’t happen. 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. 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.’”

While Miller was the most prominent actress in the film, “21 Bridges” also featured big-name male actors like Taylor Kitsch, Keith David and J.K. Simmons.

The film went on to gross $49 million worldwide. It had a $33 million budget.

Read more at Empire magazine.

Cox Media Group