Emma Watson’s acting career is most definitely not only about the money. A dedicated campaigner for women’s rights around the world, an activist, and a Global Citizen, Watson is now showing the world she can also be a shrewd businesswoman.
According to the Daily Beast, Watson is “on track to become Hollywood’s biggest earning female star of 2017.”
The reason?
Patience.
The incredible success of the newly-released “Beauty and the Beast” movie means that Watson, who opted to share in the movie’s total profits in exchange for a smaller upfront paycheck, is likely to surpass $15 million in profits for her acting in that movie alone.
Last year Jennifer Lawrence, the highest paid actress in Hollywood, took in $46 million USD, according to Forbes. Five men — Dwayne Johnson, Jackie Chan, Matt Damon, Tom Cruise, and Johnny Depp made more money than her, with Johnson bringing in almost $20 million more at $64.5 million USD.
Watson understands as well as anyone that the path for women in Hollywood is tainted by sexism and a lack of pay parity, but perhaps more importantly, she recognizes that pay disparities can be even more challenging for women living in poverty.
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“Hollywood is just a small piece of a gigantic puzzle but it’s in the spotlight,” she told Esquire magazine in 2016. “Whether you are a woman on a tea plantation in Kenya, or a stockbroker on Wall Street, or a Hollywood actress, no one is being paid equally.”
As a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, Watson has leveraged her extremely successful acting career to make a difference in the lives of women and girls around the world.
She has campaigned for ending child marriage in Malawi, has spoken out against rape culture, and is known for leaving feminist books in metro stations around the world.
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By fighting for equal rights for herself and her fellow women on a global scale, she’s showing that there are many ways to combat the patriarchal system that arbitrarily sets men above women in Hollywood and beyond.