According to his new profile in The New York Times, Avengers star Josh Brolin was shocked to learn that there is a gender pay gap in Hollywood. The main reason? The existence of Barbra Streisand.
In the new interview, which discusses Brolin's very lucrative summer on the big screen (in addition to portraying "sexy" purple villain Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, he stars in Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Deadpool 2), Brolin admitted that he didn't think women were paid less than men in Hollywood. The actor revealed to The New York Times that he was actually not making a lot of money in the industry (relatively speaking, of course), and saw women like his stepmother Barbra Streisand demanding and receiving what they desired.
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"She didn’t need to attach herself to a movement. She just is the movement," Brolin explained to the outlet of his father James Brolin's wife. "People would say, 'You can’t do that,' and she’d say, 'Well, why not?'" (This, apparently, is true of cloning her beloved dogs several times over, as well as fighting for higher wages.)
Brolin explained to The New York Times that, surprisingly, he only saw women be greatly respected in the industry, even if evidence of gender-based pay disparity (and the #MeToo movement) suggests that inequalitys in Hollywood is still a huge issue.
"I would look at those women, and there was just a lifted respect for those women," Brolin told The New York Times. "Anyway, the whole point is that I've never been privy to women that haven’t gotten theirs, or women who weren’t listened to, or women who weren’t respected. I've only known the opposite."
Despite Brolin's experience, the pay gap in Hollywood is well-documented, with even huge stars like Jennifer Lawrence receiving significantly less money than their male co-stars. Lawrence previously penned an essay for Lenny Letter in which she explained that it was her desire to be seen as "likeable" rather than "difficult" by fighting for more money that led her to settle for less on her film American Hustle.
Just because Brolin can't see it, doesn't mean the pay gap isn't there — but it does suggest that, perhaps, transparency is key in getting people to take this issue seriously.