Susan Sarandon reveals her Twilight co-star Paul Newman gave part of his salary from film to bridge pay gap

Hollywood veteran Susan Sarandon has revealed that her Twilight co-star Paul Newman once gave a part of his salary to her after he came to know that she was being paid less than the male leads in the film.

The 71-year-old actor said on the sets of the 1998 movie she discovered that her two male co-stars (Newman, Gene Hackman) were receiving a higher pay than her.

The film’s poster although showed all three stars being given equal billing.

She said the producers said it was “favoured nations”, “but they meant the two guys”. The phrase “favoured nations” is a contract between a producer and an actor, which ensures the actors are given the same terms as their co-stars.

Sarandon told BBC 5 live that Newman “stepped forward and said, ‘Well I’ll give you part of mine’. So, yeah, he was a gem.”

The actor recounted the time when Emma Stone had called for equal pay in Hollywood, some of her male co-actors stepped up and offered their part of the fee.

“Emma Stone once came forward and said she got equal pay, because her male stars insisted upon it and gave up something of theirs. That happened to me with Paul Newman at one point, when I did a film with him ages ago,” she said.