Actress Carey Mulligan may play a women's rights activist in her new film Suffragette, but the importance of equality holds personal value to her off the screen as well. Like many other women in Hollywood, she's found herself right in the middle of the wage gap conversation. During a recent interview with Vulture on Tuesday (Nov.), Mulligan explains why gender pay differences goes way beyond Hollywood limits.
Preparing herself for the role of Maud Watts, a working class wife who joins the fight for women's right to vote, was not simple for the 30-year-old English actress. Engulfing herself in historical research about women's suffrage, opened her eyes to some of the rights that women are still fighting for today.
"It's proven now, as opposed to just being a theory," Mulligan said to Vulture. "We know that women are paid less,"
Mulligan recalled the producer of the film telling a story about a job she was looking to apply for that blatantly exposed how long the pay gap has affected women in different fields of work. During the early '60s or '70s, the producer applied for a dishwasher position at a local restaurant despite the advertised pay rate of 50 pence per hour for men and only 30 pence for women.
The new mom, who welcomed her daughter Evelyn in September with husband and Mumford & Sons frontman Marcus Mumford, believes there have definitely been times where her male counterparts received a higher pay than her. Mulligan views the current fascination with the Hollywood gender pay gap as a gateway toward the bigger picture at hand.
"It's important that our conversation isn't just about Hollywood," Mulligan said. "It shouldn't be a self-serving thing; it should be used to have a wider conversation, because it's the same in all industries. If we're going to talk about it, we should use it as a platform, as opposed to just try and fix it for ourselves."
Carey Mulligan stars in Suffragette along with Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter. The film was released in the United States on Oct. 23.
