Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were paid the same amount for starring in the movie musical “Wicked,” Universal Pictures said in a statement Tuesday to Variety.
“Reports of pay disparity between Cynthia and Ariana are completely false and based on internet fodder,” a spokesperson for the studio said, according to Variety. “The women received equal pay for their work on ‘Wicked.’”
It had been reported by some outlets that Grande, who plays Glinda in “Wicked,” was paid $15 million, while Erivo, who plays Elphaba, was only paid $1 million ― claims that appear to have originated on social media. The statement from Universal did not specify how much the actors were paid.
“Wicked” earned $112 million during its opening weekend in the U.S. and $162 million worldwide, according to Deadline. The movie beat 2012’s “Les Miserables” for the biggest global and domestic opening for a movie based on a Broadway show. “Les Miserables” earned $103 million worldwide on its opening weekend, according to Deadline.
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“Wicked” is based on the musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which is itself an adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.”
Jon M. Chu, who directed the movie adaptation, implied to HuffPost that he sees parallels between the film’s plot and the current political environment, given that the story involves “an older man gaslighting a whole nation that this woman is wicked because she’s standing up for a community that’s being silenced.”
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