Zoe Saldana calls for studio bosses to pay for childcare
New mother Zoe Saldana has shamed studio executives for handing out extravagant "perks" to male actors, while refusing to pay for childcare for working moms.
The Avatar star became a first-time mom when twins Cy and Bowie were born in December (14), and in a new interview with USA Today, she opens up about the sexism she has endured as an actress - and now as a mother.
She reveals studio executives bend to her male peers' demands, but
the purse is often closed to actresses.
Saldana says, "Studios spend more money sometimes 'perking' up male
superstars in a movie, with private jets, assistants, a really phat
(cool) penthouse or them staying in a yacht instead of them staying
on land (sic).
"But then a woman comes in going, 'OK, I have a child. You're
taking me away from my home. You're taking my children away from
their home. And you're going to make me work a lot more hours than
I usually would if I was home. Therefore, I would have to pay for
this nanny for more hours - so I kind of need that'. And they go,
'Nope, we don’t pay for nannies'."
Saldana goes on to admit she was stunned to discover movie bosses
were actually considering dropping her from certain projects last
year (14) - after learning she was pregnant.
She continues, "Let me tell you something, it will never be the
right time for anybody in your life that you get pregnant. Last
year, the productions I was slated to work on sort of had a panic.
I heard through the grapevine there was even a conversation of me
being written off of one of the projects.
"I was like, 'Oh, my God, are you kidding me? It's this bad? Right
when I just feel super-duper happy, is that inconvenient for you?
That me, as a woman in my thirties, I finally am in love and I am
finally starting my life? And it's screwing your schedule up?
Really?'"