Oscar winner Olivia Colman slams Hollywood gender pay gap

Oscar winner Olivia Coleman has criticised the gender pay gap in Hollywood.

The award-winning actor hit out at claims that male actors are paid more because they draw in audiences, saying that this hasn't been true in 'decades'.

Speaking on The Amanpour Hour on CNN, she claimed she was aware of one pay gap which was of a staggering different of '12,000 percent', equivalent to being paid 120 times more.

Coleman went on to claim that she would be paid more if her name was 'Oliver' instead of Olivia.

She told The Amanpour Hour: “Research suggests that [women have] always been big box office draws.

"Don't get me started on the pay disparity, but male actors get paid more because they used to say they drew in the audiences.

"And actually, that hasn't been true for decades but they still like to use that as a reason to not pay women as much as their male counterparts."

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She added: "I'm very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I would be earning a f*ck of a lot more than I am. I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000 percent difference."

It's not the only gender double standard in Hollywood that Coleman has spoken out about.

In an interview with the Radio Times, she drew attention to how there is also a gendered double standard with swearing.

She said: “If a woman swears, people act shocked. F*ck off! Women are human – funny, filthy, loving, caring – just like men.”

Coleman had been promoting new film Wicked Little Letters, about a series of poison pen letter sent in Littlehampton in the UK in 1923.

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The film certainly doesn't shy away from obscenity, much like Colman herself when she took to the red carpet to promote it.

A reporter had been asking each of the cast their favourite swear word as part of a video, which given the film's content makes a lot of sense.

Many of the cast had chosen swear words like f*ck or sh*t, themselves strong and remarkably versatile swear words.

But Colman did not hold back at all, instead choosing the hardest-hitting one of the lot.

In a red carpet video published by StudioCanal, when asked her favourite swear word, a grinning Colman replied: "Am I allowed to say it? C*nt. It's the best one. And Chaucer wrote it down, so anyone who's a little bit precious about it, it's very cultured!"