‘UNFATHOMABLE’

Chadwick Boseman Once Used His Own Pay to Give Sienna Miller a Raise

The gender pay gap has become a hot topic in recent years—and according to Miller, Boseman once shocked her by reaching into his own pocket to give her the salary she deserved.

We already had a devastating number of reasons to mourn the loss of Chadwick Boseman both as an actor and a human being—but now, we have one more. Sienna Miller, who starred alongside Boseman in the police thriller 21 Bridges last year, says that as a producer on the film, he reached into his own pocket to give her the salary she’d asked for.

When Boseman reached out to offer Miller the role of Detective Frankie Burns in 21 Bridges, she had been ready to take a break from working, the actress told Empire magazine. The studio refused to meet Miller’s requested salary—at which point Boseman stepped in, “donating some of his salary to get me to the number that I had asked for,” Miller said—adding, “He said that that was what I deserved to be paid.”

“It’s just unfathomable to imagine another man in that town behaving that graciously or respectfully,” Miller said, adding that there was nothing showy about the gesture. As for how other male actors respond when she tells them what Boseman did? “[T]hey all go very very quiet and go home and probably have to sit and think about things for a while.”