Academy Award winner Brie Larson is set to go higher, faster, and further than some of her other high-profile Marvel compatriots when she stars as Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel for the studio's first female-led solo adventure, CAPTAIN MARVEL. I say this not only because I believe that Larson is going to kick some major ass as the studio's newest Captain, but also because while contributing to a recent exposé courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, it was revealed that Larson will earn $5 million for her role in CAPTAIN MARVEL. For those of you keeping track at home, that's more than what both Robert Downey Jr. ($500,000) and Chadwick Boseman ($2 million) made for either of their first outings as Iron Man and Black Panther, respectively.
The road to Larson's impressive payday stems from the Fall of 2017, just weeks after the first stories related to Harvey Weinstein's deplorable behavior within the industry had surfaced. As a way of combating the male-dominated Hollywood scene, where women are often under-represented, underpaid, and in some cases, become victims of both physical and mental abuse, Larson began speaking with her fellow actors about establishing equality in the workplace. These actions soon became part of the Time's Up movement, which Larson tells THR "still takes up a solid amount of my time every day." She then added, "We now have a lot of ways to try to hold ourselves and others accountable. We're also dealing with a lot of institutions — agencies, unions, studios. But I'm constantly getting emails that make me go, 'This is working.' "
How does she know that it's working? Well, have you heard of the 4% Challenge? It's a Time's Up call-to-arms that is asking "actors, producers and studio executives to commit to announcing a project with a female director in the next 18 months." (via THR) So far, the challenge has yeilded some very positive results, as Disney CEO Bob Iger has recently announced that an impressive 40 percent of Disney's upcoming films are set to be helmed by women.
For more details related to CAPTAIN MARVEL as well as Larson's personal views about the ever-changing animal that is Hollywood culture and practices, be sure to check out THR's full report.
Meanwhile, CAPTAIN MARVEL is poised to lead the charge for more female-centric Marvel films down the line when it arrives in theaters on March 8, 2019.