Kirsten Dunst reveals "extreme" pay gap between her and Spider-Man co-star Tobey Maguire

15 November 2021, 15:35

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By Jazmin Duribe

"The pay disparity between me and Spider-Man was very extreme."

Kirsten Dunst has revealed that she was paid considerably less than her Spider-Man co-star Tobey Maguire.

The actress played Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker's love interest, in the successful Marvel trilogy. Spider-Man was the third highest-grossing movie of 2002 and the first film to reach $100 million in a single weekend. At the time, it was also the most successful movie based on a comic book. Its success led to two more Spider-Man movies in 2004 and 2007.

Despite being a main character, Kirsten told The Independent that she was paid a lot less than her co-star Toby, who played titular character Spider-Man. "The pay disparity between me and Spider-Man was very extreme," she told the publication.

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"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? Spider-Man and ME."

Kirsten didn't say exactly how much she was paid but Tobey reportedly earned $4 million for his role on the first Spider-Man film. That is thought to have increased to a whopping $17 million for the sequel, Variety reported in 2004.

This hasn't been the first time Kirsten has spoken about the problems with Hollywood's gender pay gap, though.

In a 2017 interview with Variety, Kirsten said: "Because I was young, I thought, 'Oh wow, I'm getting paid a lot of money for the 'Spider-Man' movies.' But definitely the men were getting paid more. So yes, I experienced that."

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