By Spencer Coile
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In addition to its already anticipated second season, the impacts of Big Little Lies are reaching far and wide – in this case, from the pocketbooks of its network. HBO executive Casey Bloys explains that in light of the Times Up Movement, as well as insistence from series star Reese Witherspoon, the network went through a process to ensure equal pay for each of its stars… from every single series. Bloys explains:
We’ve proactively gone through all of our shows — in fact, we just finished our process where we went through and made sure that there were no inappropriate disparities in pay; and where there were, if we found any, we corrected it going forward.
It would appear that, as well as producing and starring in HBO’s latest prestige mini-series turned regular series, Witherspoon is putting her money where her mouth is.
Casey Bloys, HBO Executive After all, not only is she a draw for HBO (allegedly earning close to $1 million per episode for season two of Big Little Lies), but she continues to champion diversity and equality throughout the entire network.
More importantly, people are listening.
In light of the recent pay gap controversy surrounding Netflix’s The Crown, it makes sense that networks would actively begin to monitor who is getting paid and how much they are getting paid. This is not to say that Big Little Lies is the sole reason behind this sudden shift. However, that it became a timely phenomenon as a piece of popular culture led by powerful and complex women (Witherspoon, Kidman, Dern) at this particular moment in time, helps to explain why a series like it is setting new standards.