Chadwick Boseman Gave Co-Star Sienna Miller Part of His Salary on ’21 Bridges’

The late Chadwick Boseman gave his “21 Bridges” co-star Sienna Miller part of his salary to increase her pay on the movie, the actress revealed in a new interview.

“He produced ’21 Bridges,’ and had been really active in trying to get me to do it,” Miller says in the new issue of Empire, dedicated to the late “Black Panther” star. “He was a fan of my work, which was thrilling, because it was reciprocated from me to him, tenfold. So he approached me to do it, he offered me this film, and it was at a time when I really didn’t want to work anymore. I’d been working non-stop and I was exhausted, but then I wanted to work with him.”

Miller, who played the role of detective Frankie Burns in the 2019 action thriller, said that since the studio wouldn’t give her the salary she asked, she was hesitant to accept the role because it was “an inconvenient time” with her daughter, Marlowe, starting school. Boseman wasn’t having any of it, stepped up to the plate for his co-star, and went to bat for Miller.

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“This was a pretty big budget film, and I know that everybody understands about the pay disparity in Hollywood, but I asked for a number that the studio wouldn’t get to. And because I was hesitant to go back to work and my daughter was starting school and it was an inconvenient time, I said, ‘I’ll do it if I’m compensated in the right way.’ And Chadwick ended up donating some of his salary to get me to the number that I had asked for. He said that that was what I deserved to be paid,” Sienna Miller added.

“It was about the most astounding thing that I’ve experienced,” Sienna Miller tells Empire.  “That kind of thing just doesn’t happen. He said, ‘You’re getting paid what you deserve, and what you’re worth.’ It’s just unfathomable to imagine another man in that town behaving that graciously or respectfully.

Boseman, the actor best known for playing Black Panther in four Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, died in August of cancer. He was 43.

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According to a family statement, Chadwick Boseman was diagnosed with Stage III colon cancer in 2016 and battled the disease over the last four years as it advanced to Stage IV.

“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much,” the statement read. “From Marshall to Da 5 Bloods, August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and several more — all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy. It was the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in Black Panther.”