National Domestic Violence Awareness Project

profeminist:

“I have a story, and you guys are gonna be the first to hear it,” Spencer told a panel on Women Breaking Barriers at the Sundance Film Festival. She said that her good friend Jessica Chastain, with whom she worked on “The Help,” approached her about 15 months ago to work together on another project.

Some months later, she says she and Chastain began talking about pay equity between men and women. Chastain was adamant that women must get equal pay to men, which Spencer agreed with. “We were dropping F-bombs and getting it all out there.”

But then the conversation took an important turn, according to Spencer. “I said, ‘But here’s the thing, women of color on that spectrum, we make far less than white women. So, if we’re gonna have that conversation about pay equity, we gotta bring the women of color to the table,’” Spencer added. “And I told her my story, and we talked numbers, and she was quiet, and she said she had no idea that that’s what it was like for women of color.”

Spencer got choked up but assured the audience that “these are happy tears!” She continued, “I love that woman, because she’s walking the walk and she’s actually talking the talk. She said, ‘Octavia, we’re gonna get you paid on this film,’” Spencer told the crowd. Chastain told her, “'You and I are gonna be tied together. We’re gonna be favored nations, and we’re gonna make the same thing’ … Fast forward to last week, we’re making five times what we asked for.”

The crowd cheered and Spencer added, “Now, I wanna go to what the men are making!”

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