Bryce Dallas Howard is part of the Jurassic World franchise, arguably (or not so much) the female co-lead alongside Chris Pratt. Pratt was a bigger star when the two actors signed their contracts, and Pratt has gotten paid much, much more than Bryce for the sequel films. There have been reports here and there about how poorly Bryce was paid compared to Pratt. In 2018, Bryce talked around that issue, saying that in general, she gets paid so much less than her male costars. Now she’s getting more specific about the Jurassic franchise, but she also gives Pratt some credit:
Reports surfaced in 2018 that Bryce Dallas Howard was making $8 million to Chris Pratt’s $10 million for their work on “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” but Howard revealed in a new interview with Insider that she was actually being paid “so much less” on the “Jurassic World” sequels compared to her male co-star. Howard did not reveal a dollar amount, but she did stress that Pratt worked to correct the situation by ensuring she had pay parity on other “Jurassic World” properties such as video games and theme park rides.
“The reports were so interesting because I was paid so much less than the reports even said, so much less,” Howard said. “When I started negotiating for ‘Jurassic,’ it was 2014 and it was a different world, and I was at a great disadvantage. And, unfortunately, you have to sign up for three movies and so your deals are set.”
Howard continued, “What I will say is that Chris and I have discussed it, and whenever there was an opportunity to move the needle on stuff that hadn’t been already negotiated, like a game or a ride, he literally told me, ‘You guys don’t even have to do anything. I’m gonna do all the negotiating. We’re gonna be paid the same and you don’t have to think about this, Bryce.’”
“I love him so much for doing that,” Howard concluded. “I really do, because I’ve been paid more for those kinds of things than I ever was for the movie.”
Howard and Pratt first joined forces for “Jurassic World” before reuniting to headline the film’s two sequels, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Jurassic World: Dominion.” The latter opened in June and has grossed $373 million in the U.S. and $974 million worldwide, massive sums as the box office continues to recover from the pandemic.
That’s actually a really nice story about Pratt? I think it says something about Bryce that she talks to her male costars about money and who’s being paid what, and I think it says something about Pratt that he was listening to her and talking to her about this stuff, plus he was advocating for her in those meetings. One of the best, most feminist-ally things men can do is talk to their female coworkers about money. It helps women negotiate and/or walk away if things are unfair. Even if Pratt had simply told Bryce flat-out what he’s being paid for the movies and for the add-on stuff like video games, that would help Bryce and her agent negotiate. The fact that Pratt used his white-guy privilege to negotiate the same pay for Bryce on the rides and video games is great.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Bryce Dallas Howard et Chris Pratt CELEBRITIES : Before World Premiere of the movie Jurassic World – Paris – 05/29/2015 – 09/,Image: 524483114, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Gwendoline Le Goff / Panoramic / Avalon
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- Bryce Dallas Howard et Chris Pratt CELEBRITIES : Before World Premiere of the movie Jurassic World – Paris – 05/29/2015 – 09/,Image: 524483142, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Gwendoline Le Goff / Panoramic / Avalon
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- HOLLYWOOD, CA – JUNE 06: (L-R) Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt attend the Los Angeles premiere of Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic World Dominion” at the TCL Chinese Theatre on June 06, 2022 in Hollywood, California.,Image: 697672171, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JUNE 06: American actress Bryce Dallas Howard and American actor Chris Pratt arrive at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Universal Pictures’ ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ held at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on June 6, 2022 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 697685065, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- UNIVERSAL CITY, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JUNE 11: American actress Bryce Dallas Howard arrives at the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) 2022 Summer Block Party held at Universal Studios Backlot on June 11, 2022 in Universal City, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 699050541, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Bryce Dallas Howard, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JUNE 22: American actor Chris Pratt arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon Prime Video’s ‘The Terminal List’ Season 1 held at the Directors Guild of America Theater Complex on June 22, 2022 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 702147841, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Chris Pratt, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
I think this was a really good thing he did. Showed he listened and cared.
True. But… “you don’t have to think about this, Bryce, I’ll take care of it” is such a non-feminist thing to say.
I’ve heard that so many times and it took me a really long time to realize that sentence also puts me in my place – don’t you talk, I’ll do the talking.
That jumped out at me too, wtf.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head about it anymore”. Uh, no.
I actually had a boss say that to me years ago, ‘don’t worry your pretty little head about it’. I just looked at her, stunned, mouth agape probably, thinking, ‘oh, you don’t know who you’re talking to.’ And I let it go. Eyes on the prize, I needed that job. I needed the income, I needed the tuition reimbursement (working on my BA at the time). She, and that company, are no longer even in my rear-view mirror.
I agree, it would have been better if he had offered to help rather than just telling her he’d take care of it.
Good point. It makes him sound “chivalrous.” Also, Bryce’s dad is Ron Howard. Call my cynical but I’m not convinced that Pratt would go up to bat in the same way for a woman colleague from a non-famous family. Hope I’m wrong.
He might be a dipstick in his personal life, from what I understand he’s been very well liked by everyone he’s worked with. Also in her quote she said “You guys” which seems to imply that he went to bat for more people than BDH in this situation.
To be fair, maybe he just knows his audience, and knows he’ll get better results from leading the discussion rather than her. Granted, the tone isn’t great, but material action like this I think is more important than tone. I say this as an academic who had their sexual harassment rug-swept by faculty members who spoke a damn good game about feminism. Look to someone’s behavior over their words goes both ways sometimes.
This. I’m really surprised to see so much pushback here. A lot of letting the perfect get in the way of the good. He did the thing we ask of allies – he put himself on the line and stood up for someone with less power than himself, and Bryce got a lot more money. What is the problem?
Allies aren’t here to speak for us, whatever community they’re there to ally with (and I’m not a huge fan of that word).
Since this is her experience then it’s fine if she’s satisifed but as an overall generalized example there’s definitely a questionable level of paternalism here.
C- can you give me an example of how he should have handled it? What would have been the best way in your opinion? Honestly asking, no snark.
I’m not going to speak for her because she seems fine, but if this were me dealing with it in my office, I’d prefer to have gone with said person as a united front instead of it being handled for me.
But context matters. I don’t like or trust this guy’s politics or personality for various reasons and so that colors my view.
Not a fan of Pratt, but I will say that gender bias everywhere is very real, and people presenting as feminine are routinely not taken seriously, ignored, commodified, punished for not performing femininity, etc. I see sexism as a professor, I saw it as a graduate student, I experienced men literally leaning over counters to touch me as a barista at a coffee shop, and I even experienced it with my own parents who expected great things from my brother as a professional but nothing from me. She alone could have negotiated, no doubt, but Pratt doing some of the negotiating might have helped.
I’m with you, C. What gross machismo. Don’t worry your pretty little vacant head, I’ll be your hero and do the negotiating because I’m built that way and math is hard for girls. F off, Worst Chris.
Geez, this guy could save a puppy from a house fire and people would complain he was holding it wrong. He wouldn’t even be the one negotiating, it would be his agent. He probably asked him to get the best deal, and then demand pay parity for Bryce. Also you all attack him for “speaking” for her and here you all are getting mad on her behalf when she seems delighted.
I agree that the fact he involved himself and did it are what’s important and we have no idea why he said that (and we don’t know if it’s an exact quote). Those kind of negotiations – especially at that level – are veery tough and tricky-I’d actually be surprised if he even did it -or if it was his agents, lawyers etc. i remember when the friends actors were renegotiating their deal and after when they talked about it it sounded like it was difficult and important for all teams to be on the same page with the same talking points and towing the same line. They were the biggest stars in the Western world then and it was very difficult and time consuming to get done, but they did. Chris may have known that his team was the most powerful in Hollywood and/or tough as nails at negotiating and that he could instruct them not to settle for less than equal pay and if anyone else was involved it risked expense and the outcome-and maybe even her/their jobs. It’s the equivalent of walking into a car dealership or house showing or appliance store, etc. and one person turning to the other and saying “Let me do the talking”. Sometimes you size it all up and know you are the one who can handle it or that it will be better handled with one voice.
Every time you think about Hollywood nepotism remember that if you’re a woman-even Ron Howard’s daughter- the nepotism wont necessarily extend to the paycheck.
Geez, the poor sod cant win.
Right? I mean what was he supposed to say. He had the ability to step in and he did it. That’s all that matters.
+1
Yeah the guy sucks, but if Bryce was okay with it, why can’t people be happy for her about it. In the end she was helped by a friend. Is she supposed to be mad at him for helping her?
Plus it’s a recollection it’s likely paraphrasing. It reminds me of RDJ going to bat for his costars on Age of Ultron. His contract was up with IM3 so for every other movie they had to negotiate with him. But his costars were still locked in their deals. He had the power and leverage and used it.
No kidding!
Chris Pratt does something great.
People: “Well the (second hand re-telling) language he used doing this great thing was problematic, so…”
It’s not a non-feminist thing to say. Women are allowed to get help sometimes. He was working to correct a situation he probably felt really bad and partly responsible for. If the pay difference was that great to begin with, I’m guessing he carries a lot more weight among the executives than she does and they’d respect his request. Maybe it was something that was causing her a lot of stress or upset and so he said “hey, don’t even worry about it, I’ll talk to somebody about it.” She framed it in a good way, so I’m guessing what he said (this obviously was paraphrased from an old conversation) wasn’t condescending.
I’d gladly accept a colleague’s help in this situation, especially if they had more influence than I did. It’s feminist to trust that however Bryce decided to handle her work matters to fit her situation was correct for her.
+1
Good grief she was happy with the result. She likely knew the result wouldn’t have been the same if she stood alone.
Telling someone that you care about to not worry about an issue you plan to fix didn’t have to automatically be patronizing. He doesn’t seem to have stepped on her toes.
Bryce is a director, I’m sure she would have told him to step aside if she felt that way.
Lastly SHE told this story, not him. Give him a little credit for trying to be a genuinely good person.
That stuck out to me too, he could have said “don’t worry, we’re going in together and will negotiate together for equal pay” but at the same time, he did a good thing here and it’s unusual to hear something good about him anymore, so good for him for being an ally.
Right?! Shhhh, the men are speaking.
I would agree but she’s paraphrasing here. It’s not a direct quote.
Nobody tells me what to think about and what not to think about.
I know he doesn’t always say the right things, but CP strikes me as someone whose heart is in the right place. His costars rave about him and defend him when given the opportunity- if people that actually know and work with him love him, we have to take that as a strong data point.
Hollywood defending their friends is not always the greatest evidence someone is a good person.
He strikes me as the typical “good guy” – actually not that great but our bar for men is hell.
Although I am going out of context I stopped liking Chris Pratt for being a Trump supporter and I would like to think that his heart is the right place but he somehow was fooled by Donald Trump’s bullshit. It was nice of him to help Bryce negotiate a fair salary.
Chris Pratt is a tool. That’s all I’ve got.
I know the words sound condescending but I think that’s her just paraphrasing? I read it as “You don’t have to fight this fight, I’ve got this.” Considering how much shit she – like all women – has had to take in her career, I understand why she would just let him take the lead. If this was offered to me by a male colleague in her situation, I’d take it.
I totally agree. He is the one the studio would fight to keep. They would have let her walk. She knew it, he it.
To me this is someone saying “this is bullsh*t that you have to deal with this. I have more power than you in this situation, so I’m going to use it”
Also, if anyone thinks that her agent wasn’t involved to help or keep her in the loop, they don’t understand the industry. She is 100% paraphrasing. It most likely went like this: Chris told his agent “tell them to pay Bryce more or I’m walking” and then both agents and the producers hammered it out.
@colby +1
Totally agree!
I wouldn’t, honestly. You can’t trust someone to represent you in a situation like this unless you’re there and it’s a thorny thing to start claiming your rightful compensation only because another powerful man has decided you’re worth it.
Like others have said, this is Bryce Dallas Howard. She’s not particularly impressive in acting skills but she’s had it made since day 1. I remember when Summit dumped Rachelle Lefevre to cast Bryce in Twilight: Eclipse. I doubt Chris Pratt would go to bat for a relatively unknown actress whose father wasn’t Ron Howard.
C- I can tell you from industry experience, there is literally no way her agent wasn’t involved in these discussions.
Involved is a word that can do a lot of heavy lifting and unless Bryce wants to elaborate we can probably assume that while her agent was “involved” the large initiation of this occurred from him, which would also coincide with what you are saying about him in other comments.
Anyway, they can do what they want. But my general points still stand.
I said take the lead, not send me home to have a cocktail and not be involved at all. I’ve offered to do something similar for (female) colleagues who are a bit older and don’t have my “this is business, pay me” attitude. It’s not personal, it’s about money. But they were raised in a different generation (I don’t know if I’m good enough, what if they think I’m not worth it?) and our employer knows this. Employer also knows I don’t have that issue. I never offered to go in there and do this alone. They have to participate of course. Couldn’t bring themselves to do it even with support. I imagine it was similar here, except Bryce accepted.
I don’t mind that he took on that fight. When half of my department got a promotion except for 1 male colleague and I, he offered to fight for me when he was advocating for his own promotion. I said no thanks because I was afraid to be painted with the “complainer” brush. Of course, he was promoted 3 years before me and I always wondered what would have happened if I had said yes to that offer.
Isn’t he a much bigger star though? You get paid based on star power don’t you? If it was Jennifer Lawrence instead of Bryce, than I can see her gettnig paid more than Pratt. Bryce is a great actress, but is she a household name who could carry a movie on her own? I don’t think so…not yet.
She’s a much bigger star in her own right now, but it is mentioned at the time of signing on for the 3 movies Chris was further ahead of her. It does make sense why he was paid more, but sometimes star power has zip to do with it & they’ll still pay the female leads less.
Oh yeah I agree, being male majority of the time equals higher pay…regardless of what your career is. I was just saying in this situation, she’s not a huge name (or certainly wasn’t when she signed her contract). She didn’t have the leveraging power Pratt did.
After Guardians and Parks & Rec, there were few box office draws bigger than him, so his pay reflected in that. And it was nice he went to bat to equalize pay for BDH (and I assume other cast members) on the ancillary stuff where “star power” wasn’t a factor.
I don’t think she expected to be paid equally but I think the issue was the gap after the first movie was SO big. And in the side deals, that Pratt helped with, she was so undervalued.
Quite frankly, it’s the least he could do. I’m glad that it worked out for Bryce.
Considering who her father is, it’s really fascinating/sad that even she gets lowballed by the industry.
That said, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone say they went to see a movie to see her. She’s not much of a draw, so I sorta, kinda understand the pay-gap in this instance.
I was thinking the opposite: Considering who her father is, I am pleasantly surprised that nepotism isn’t everything anymore.
The fact that she was paid too little because she’s a woman is a separate issue that was thankfully addressed.
I’m surprised she got paid as much as she did since she does not have any star power. Probably just gets cast cuz if her dad. They could have gotten any other actress. I don’t know anyone that is a fan of hers. Also, let’s be real. Their agents are the ones that negotiate the contracts. I doubt Chris went in and put on a presentation. His agent or lawyers already had it setup so it was nice if him to include her too.
How much did he negotiate this good PR? lol
Except he didn’t negotiate this good PR – Dallas is speaking about it, not Chris. He wanted pay parity and he helped negotiate it, that’s what men are supposed to do, to be advocates in the room. Good on him in this instance.
I get y’all hate Chris but dang give the man a break. He didn’t do anything, Bryce was giving the interview and spoke up. From what I’ve seen of her, she’s not about to lie about something like this.
Shani, they hate this man so bad. He can’t even do a good thing.
It sounds like he advocated for others too, to get a bigger cut of the revenue from games and theme park rides. Not just Bryce. Like she said that was big money and he wasn’t obligated to help the others on the movie out.
Yes, for all the people above acting like he infantilized her, he went to bat for everyone.
The man isn’t toxic
Pratt can have a foot-shaped mouth for sure, but one way to look at this is that he wanted to make sure she got equitable pay for deals that hadn’t been negotiated, and took on the effort/labor to make it happen. And she sounds like she’s happy with his and his team’s help, so good on them.
Talentless nepotism hire not getting paid as much as the more well known actor on set.
Boo hoo.
I’m sure Ron Howard’s daughter will be just fine.
There’s a misunderstanding here about how the negotiation process works. The actor does not liaise with Business Affairs on these deals, they have attorneys that do that on their behalf, who work with their agents/managers to get the best deal. The actor is kept abreast of all this, and can also be the one who dictates if they want to work together on a deal with another cast member / as a group. This happens a lot on ensemble films to ensure pay parity, especially for lower profile actors. Of course, it is also the actor’s choice to instruct their team to negotiate on their own.
She’s wrong about not being able to renegotiate. You typically renegotiate after each film in a multiple franchise deal, and can not only up the fee considerably for the sequels (from hundreds of thousands to millions), but also negotiate a non-contractual bonus on the first film if it’s done crazy numbers at the box office.
I have no doubt she was paid less on the first film. Chris was coming off the back of Guardians, and I also believe that he went in for pay parity on the sequel. But there’s a real misconception for those outside of the industry as to who is doing the work behind the scenes. Actors do not negotiate. They are not the ones having the tough conversations.