Taraji P. Henson offered some insight into this in her memoir Around the Way Girl where she described being paid in the low six figures (and was forced to pay for her own hotel costs) for her role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, while Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt received payouts in the millions. She said that she didn’t put up a fight because she knew that “there are way more talented black actresses than there are intelligent, meaningful roles for them, and we’re consistently charged with diving for the crumbs of the scraps, lest we starve.” She added, “I knew the stakes: no matter how talented, no matter how many accolades my prior work had received, if I pushed for more money, I’d be replaced and no one would so much as a blink.”