Claudia Black is expanding on her decision to bow out of Star Wars: Ahsoka season two due to pay, as well as opening up about how Hollywood “doesn’t factor in what it’s like to be a woman in the business, as opposed to a man.”
While promoting her series Spartacus: House of Ashur, which releases on Starz Friday, the actress who played Nightsister Klothow in the first season of the Disney+ series recently told Bleeding Cool that “Disney, which is structuring things differently these days, could not pay me what I needed to be paid as a single mother to keep all my responsibilities going at home in Los Angeles, because they were filming in London.” This led her to ultimately decide to step away from season two.
Now, chatting with The Hollywood Reporter, Black says she spoke out about the matter because she wants to bring awareness to the reality of working as an actor as a woman, specifically a single mother.
“When I did the first season, people assumed that I’m making hundreds of thousands of dollars. It could not be further from the truth on a role like this,” she admits. “[My pay was] closer to what I was earning when I was 19 or in my early 20s.”
She continues, “I have heard people who work in corporations, not necessarily Disney, but all these bigger corporations, they have spoken in rooms about how lucky the actors should be to be part of a successful franchise, and that they will take it for the screen credit and they will take it for a bit of money, and then hopefully that will bring them further work, but that they should be lucky. The issue I have is when that comes to women, other people who were able to say yes to this job didn’t have the same responsibilities, and that thinking is not designed around how much invisible work women do in a household.”
“I have a great community, I have an amazing life,” Blacks adds. “It’s just something needs to change and this needs to be discussed, and I knew the risks and I think there’s more power in me stepping back, because I’m not desperate and there’s more power in me talking about it even though there’s so little job security and there’s so little psychological safety in these spaces when women do speak up.”
The Farscape alum tells THR she knows the decision Disney made wasn’t personal, but appreciates all the support she’s received since her initial comments to Bleeding Cool.
“It’s a difficult situation and the industry is fragile because if you push too hard, nothing gets made,” she explains. “It’s a delicate balance to strike, and I completely understand the decision that Disney made. The people who were negotiating, whether it was the legal department or whoever they were, might not even know my screen credits, might not even know who I am, and so this was absolutely not personal. But I’ve been in the business for over 30 years and it’s wild how much of an outpouring there was in response in the last 24, 36 hours, whatever it’s been. People from all over the industry, directors, actors, skilled technicians on the crew, just reaching out and acknowledging me, so positively, thanking me because I don’t know anyone in this business who has job security.”
She continues, “It’s really important to me, having this conversation as it continues in some respects from #MeToo, just starting to open up discussions around disparity and the way things are run, and the way women are treated. I’m not saying I’ve been treated poorly in this instance with Ahsoka, not at all. It’s just that we’re not thought about, we’re not factored in, because there’s so much invisible work that women do in a household, even when they’re married. And it’s far from invisible to themselves when they’re an unpartnered mother, such as myself, and I think people assume that I’ve got a whole team of people picking up after me.”
When the first installment of Ahsoka premiered in 2023, Black played one of three Dathmiri Nightsisters of Peridia (as well as Jeryl Prescott Gallien and Jane Edwina Seymour). They were a trio of witches who used their dark magic and help Grand Admiral Thrawn, which involved resurrecting an army of zombified soldiers and possibly manipulating the thread of fate.
Once she decided to depart season two, Black says she also sent Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni an email “to thank him for the ride and for all the happiness on set,” but also to make sure he has the full story.
“He probably wouldn’t have known the background and I wanted him to know that if I could have, I would have, and that I did season one on a massive pay cut, precisely because many people want to be part of the Star Wars universe, and we will say yes,” she says. “But it took me to burnout, and it actually did really cost me to do it in the end.”
Black adds, “I hope they understand that me talking about this is not in the least bit personal. It’s about a discussion about the business because it certainly wasn’t built for people like me. And I don’t expect anyone to pay for my life choices except me, but I do want the awareness to grow around the diversity of people in this business. If they want to have the aura of an older woman who has all this lived experience, but they don’t wanna help actually support her, then there’s a problem.”
Lucasfilm declined to comment.
Black’s role was the only character that had to be recast when production moved from the U.S. to the U.K., aside from Ray Stevenson, who died in 2023. He played Baylan Skoll in season one.
