The Spider-Man can’t stop, and it won’t stop, even if Tom Holland is out there talking about how the upcoming No Way Home installment is “not fun” and “sad.” A trailer should be incoming on Tuesday evening, and Holland’s out there distracting the masses while talking about Venom 2 post-credits scenage, and rumors continue to swirl everywhere about which former Spider-Men will appear in the multiverse-geared flick. Well, Kirsten Dunst is stepping up from the 2000s trilogy past to discuss how that production went. Specifically, The Virgin Suicides actress is letting the world know that she wasn’t paid nearly (while portraying Mary Jane) much as Tobey Maguire received for slinging webs and wearing spandex.
Hmm. To my recollection, Dunst’s appearance in that first trilogy drew plenty of fanfare, and those movies raked in well over $1 billion at the box office. Did Dunst receive a sweet back-end deal for those revenues? It sure doesn’t sound like it. Here’s her lowdown as related to The Independent:
“The pay disparity between me and Spider-Man was very extreme,” she says. “I didn’t even think about it. I was just like, ‘Oh yeah, Tobey [Maguire] is playing Spider-Man.’ But you know who was on the cover of the second Spider-Man poster?” She flashes a grin and points at her chest. “Spider-Man and ME.”
She’s not wrong. Gender-pay disparity has only recently seen corrections, at least in Hollywood, with Netflix’s The Crown being ground central for revelations that Claire Foy, who portrayed Queen Elizabeth for two seasons, got paid far less than Matt Smith did for playing Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, although he was the consort to the monarch. So, yeah, it’s very easy to believe that Dunst got paid much less than Maguire for any role in the same movie.
However, Dunst reveals that she’d be good with signing on to play Mary Jane again, if Sony decided to go there. “I would do it,” she revealed to Variety. “Why not? That would be fun… I would never say no to something like that.” And sure, why not? The franchise is yanking almost every other former character into the mix. Let’s hope, though, that they’d boost Dunst’s pay next time around, should it happen.
(Via The Independent & Variety)
