Adele Lim, one of the writers for the "Crazy Rich Asians" film, withdrew from the sequels due to her payment. (Image via Page Six)

Payment inequity, screenplay writer for “Crazy Rich Asians” sequel withdrawn from the film (Sports & Culture)

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Sports & Culture
TV & Film
Sep 06, 2019
1863
Adele Lim, one of the screenplay writers of the wealthy, comedic romance film “Crazy Rich Asians”, reportedly left the sequels due to payment inequity. According to Lim’s testimony, Peter Chiarelli, also the co-writer for the “Crazy Rich Asians”, got about US$800,000 to US$1 million payment, while Lim was offered an eighth of the payment at US$110,000-ish.

“Crazy Rich Asians” reaped US$238.5 million globally, and the director, Jon M. Chu, would like to do the follow-ups of the franchise, “China Rich Girlfriends” and “Rich People Problems”.

“Crazy Rich Asians” tells a story based on Asian stereotypes on how a family’s legacy and fame affect a couple’s romance, especially in an Asian family. Henry Golding played as Nick Young, a young heir of Young family, and Constance Wu played Rachel Chu, Nick’s girlfriend. The acclaimed Malaysian actress, Michelle Yeoh, also played in the movie as the cold mother of Nick Young, Eleanor Young.

“The way they offer me the payment reflects how they see my contributions,” said the angered Adele Lim.

Warner Bros (WB) would like to weigh into the matter. According to WB, the payment offered to Lim was “experience-based”. In other words, Chiarelli was offered that much amount because of his rich experience.

For Lim, the romantic hit was her first feature film. All this time, Lim mostly writes for TV series. While for Chiarelli, the payment is usual since he even wrote the script for “The Proposals”, a 2009 romantic film starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. In Hollywood, said WB, the inequity of payment based on experience was almost usual.

Moreover, Chiarelli would be willing to split the payment with Lim to make her stay, to which the Malaysian-born writer refused. Lim asserted that Chiarelli’s gesture was nice, but she did not want to take it for granted.

“What Chiarelli intends to do is more than gracious. However, I did not want to rely on the generosity of that white-guy writer,”

Lim mentioned Chiarelli as a “white-guy” writer, noting that if WB treated women of color this way, Lim could not imagine what would happen to any girl like her. She added that it seems like WB only valued her because of her nationality that made the film looks “authentic”.

Adele Lim already received an offer from Disney to do “Raya and the Last Dragon”, an animation feature based on ASEAN mythology.

While Adele Lim called WB out for its “experience-based” and what she accused as “race-based” payment, payment inequity in Hollywood has always been a matter. For example, a payment dispute occurred in Ridley Scott’s “All Money in the World” that actress who played Gail Harris, Michelle Williams’ payment was “just a friction of” her colleague, Mark Wahlberg.

Source: https://www.star2.com/entertainment/2019/09/05/adele-lim-crazy-rich-asians-pay-dispute/

Culture , Social , Film , Movie , Equality , Feminism , Crazy-Rich-Asians