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Dwayne Johnson has even more to grin about than usual right now, after Forbes announced the blockbuster star is the world’s highest paid actor.
The Rock earned USD $64.5 million in the last year, largely thanks to his new hit series Ballers, as well as disaster film San Andreas and the latest instalment in the ever-popular Furious saga.
Johnson was followed by Jackie Chan, whose popularity in China kept the long-time screen star in second place with USD $61 million, and then Matt Damon at $55 million.
The list reveals that male actors are still getting paid far more than their female counterparts. Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp, who came it at fourth and fifth on the list respectively, still earned more than Jennifer Lawrence, the world’s highest paid actress with USD $46 million banked in the last year.
Image: Lionsgate
Hollywood’s gender pay-gap was thrown into the spotlight in 2014 when hackers targeting Sony leaked confidential information, including the pay cheques of a lot of their talent. Many female stars like Jennifer realised just how much more their male counterparts were earning, and she penned an essay about it for Lena Dunham’s website Lenny Letter.
“I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled’ [by pushing hard in payment negotiations]” she wrote. At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realised every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled’.”
Forbes’ full list can be viewed here.
