This Leonardo DiCaprio Co-Star Was Paid Less Than $1K While Mark Wahlberg Took $1.5M—Hollywood Took Notice

When All the Money in the World scrambled to recast Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer, Michelle Williams showed up ready to reshoot, for peanuts. Literally.

While Mark Wahlberg made headlines for pocketing $1.5 million for the same last-minute reshoots, Williams earned less than $1,000. That’s right, an $80 per diem. No one told her either.

USA Today broke the news that Williams later admitted she felt “paralyzed in feelings of futility.” She’d been acting since she was 12, a four-time Oscar nominee, and still… “No one cared.” That sting of silence was personal.

How Michelle Williams Turned a Paycheck into a Protest

It took a storm of backlash and solidarity to flip the script. Jessica Chastain became a loud and unapologetic ally. Williams recalled how Chastain “wasn’t afraid to pick up a megaphone and be heard.” That megaphone helped raise $2 million for the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund.

As Williams put it, her experience proved equality “is not an inalienable right,” even for someone celebrated at the highest levels of the industry. What followed wasn’t just a paycheck correction, but a cultural reset.

She saw it in the small things. “Rather than being grasped too tightly and hugged for too long,” she said, “my hand was shaken… I was looked squarely in the eye.” That Monday morning wasn’t just another workday. It was a quiet revolution.

This wasn’t just about one movie. All the Money in the World may have wrapped in eight reshoot days, but the conversation it started still echoes. Hollywood has always run on power, perception, and paychecks.

Michelle Williams didn’t just expose a gap. She became the face of a movement that demanded more from an industry obsessed with optics but slow on equality. That $1.5 million vs. $1K number? It wasn’t just a pay discrepancy. It was a spotlight. And for once, it didn’t fade.

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