Sienna Miller has revealed that Chadwick Boseman cut his own pay to bump up her salary when they worked together.
Miller and the late Black Panther star appeared in the 2019 thriller 21 Bridges, where they portrayed a pair of NYPD police officers.
Miller has now revealed that she was close to turning the film down after the studio behind it declined to meet her salary request. Boseman, who produced the film and sought Miller for her role, then intervened to ensure she was appropriately compensated, regardless of the studio’s opinion on her worth.
“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 Empire 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.’
“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 added that she was “astounded” by Boseman’s generosity.
“That kind of thing just doesn’t happen,” she continued. “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… There was no showiness, it was, ‘Of course I’ll get you to that number, because that’s what you should be paid.’”
Boseman died in August at the age of 43, after battling colon cancer for four years.
The Black Panther star chose to keep his diagnosis a secret to the public and much of the film industry, with only a handful of friends and family knowing that he was sick.
