Getty Image / Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Over the weekend the Internet ran rampant with lies that Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were paid drastically different amounts for their roles. Nowhere were these lies more prevalent than on TikTok where video after video mentioned the pay disparity with some videos claiming Ariana Grande was paid $10 or $15 million while Cynthia Erivo was only paid $1 million.
Universal Pictures has released a statement to THR clearing these lies up. They shut down all of the pay disparity discussion by clearly saying both Wicked co-stars were paid the same.
Their full statement to THR was “Reports of pay disparity between Cynthia and Ariana are completely false and based on internet fodder. The women received equal pay for their work on Wicked.” Videos like this one have been seen nearly 1 million times on TikTok and racked up tens of thousands of ‘likes’ and the videos are nothing but lies…
@ajdf_music they all did such a good job || #fyp#foryoupage#viral#xyzcba#wicked#wickedmovie#payed#money#act#actor#acting#arianagrande#ariana#ag#glinda#galinda#cynthia#cynthiaerivo#ce#K#pay#elphaba#bowen#bowenyang#pfannee#by#michelleyeoh#michelle#madamemorrible#my#jeff#jeffgoldblum#jg#thewizard#jonathan#jonathanbailey#jb#fiyero#marissa#marissabode#mb#nessarose#ethanslater#ethan#es#boq#af_music#w#defyinggravity#idina#idinamenzel#im#kristenchenoweth#kristen#kc#musical#music#celebrity @Wicked Movie @arianagrande @Cynthia Erivo
That video in particular claims Cynthia Erivo was paid $1 million while claiming Ariana Grande was paid $15 million for her role. It also claims that Jeff Goldblum who plays The Wizard and is on screen for maybe 1% of the film was paid $2 million which is 2x what they claim Cynthia Erivo was paid. And currently, there’s an article up on the NYPost with these same lies. The wrote “multiple outlets have reported that Grande, making her lead role film debut, was paid $15 million for her role in the movie. That’s 15 times as much as Erivo’s rumored paycheck of $1 million.”
The top comment on that video is “Cynthia only making 1 mill should be a crime” and it has nearly 7,000likes. Every single one of the other top comments are form people complaining about the pay disparity. Sadly, those people have already seen those straight-up lies being peddled and there’s no telling if they’ll ever learn the truth that both Wicked co-stars were paid the same.
here’s what I don’t get about all of this… Do people really think that Ariana Grande would put herself in a position to be paid 15x her co-star when they have equal amounts of screen time? Are people really dumb they can’t realize that Grande and her entire team wouldn’t allow that? And I say this as someone who is by no means an Ariana Grande fan. I still remember the donuts spitting incident…
But if she actually got paid 15x her co-star for the same amount of work and that ever got out she would look like a monster and someone who has such a perfectly manicured public persona, Ariana or any industry superstar, would simply never allow that to happen. The same could be said about the studio if they were to pay one star 15x the other for this film.
Ultimately, if you know anyone who claims that Ariana Grande got paid $15M and Cynthia Erivo only got paid $1 million just send them this statement from Universal so they don’t look stupid peddling lies like people have been on TikTok.