Angela Bassett continues to break barriers.
During the Civil Rights movement, Gil Scott-Heron said the revolution will not be televised, Bassett is helping to prove him wrong.
Actor Angela Bassett just broke another barrier for women of color as she is officially the highest-paid actress of color for a drama series.
Deadline reported that the 9-1-1 actor will now demand “north of $450,000 an episode,” which the trade site notes “could be the highest ever for an actress of color on a broadcast drama series.
Bassett’s new salary is for the role of an actor and as an executive producer. A title she has held since Season 2 after starting out as a co-EP. She also carries an EP title on offshoot 9-1-1: Lone Star.
Season 5 of Fox’s 9-1-1 is set to premiere this fall Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox, and Angela Bassett will continue to star in the role of Athena.
Bassett came to the Fox drama as an Academy Award nominee, for her starring role in 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do With It.
Other notable actors who bring in the bank include, Kerry Washington, who reportedly started out on Scandal at $80K per episode. However with the series’ incredible success of the show, she received a massive increase to $250K per episode. Continuing on the miniseries front Washington commands $1.1 million for each episode of Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere.
Meanwhile ABC’s medical drama Grey’s Anatomy star Chandra Wilson who started in 2007 was bumped up to “at least” $125K per episode. According to reports with her occasional directing, Wilson is closer to the $375K that co-star Justin Chambers was reportedly getting at the time of his exit. Clearly we still have work to do.
Viola Davis reportedly was making $250K per episode, two seasons into the ABC series How to Get Away With Murder. By the end of the series’ run it Davis may have been closing in on $450K.
We are here for all the benchmarks women of color are setting in Hollywood. What are some of your tops shows on the silver screen? Share you thoughts below.
