Kathleen Turner has described the amount of money paid to A-list actors as “essentially immoral” and argued actresses should be paid the same as their male co-stars.
The actress, who rose to fame in hit 1980s films including Body Heat and Romancing The Stone, told The Observer funds should instead be used to improve the quality of the scripts and performances.
Movie budgets for the biggest blockbusters can run into the hundreds of millions of pounds, with 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides the most expensive ever made, according to officially recognised figures.
The film, starring Johnny Depp, had a budget of 378.5 million dollars (£299 million).
Turner, 64, said “the hundreds of millions they spend on films now I find essentially immoral”, adding that men and woman should be paid the same, “certainly when they carry the film or they’re a full co-star”.
Turner was also critical of the high fees paid to movie stars, saying: “How much money does a person need? You can only live in one house at a time.”
In August, Turner revealed she did not feel welcomed by the cast of Friends when she made a guest appearance on the revered US sitcom in 2001.
She said the show’s six leading stars acted like a “clique”.
