There is indeed a pay gap between Rose Byrne and partner Bobby Cannavale; she is the primary income earner in their family.
The two have been together since 2012 and share two sons. The 40-year-old Neighbors actress and 49-year-old Boardwalk Empire and Nurse Jackie alum are also coworkers; they co-starred in the 2014 Annie remake, the 2014 film Adult Beginners, the 2015 Melissa McCarthy movie Spy, a 2018 episode of Angie Tribeca—of which he was also a cast member, and the recently released short film Martha the Monster.
"I make half as much as she does," Cannavale told Vanity Fair in an interview posted on Thursday. "Down the middle. Half. I work too much in the theater, perhaps."
Cannavale, who has starred in several Broadway plays, did not reveal the specific differences in his and Byrne's salaries for their joint projects. Over the past few years, actresses such as Jennifer Lawrence have spoken out publicly against gender-based wage inequality that favors men, which has always existed in the United States.
Byrne and Cannavale are set to soon work together on two theatre productions: Simon Stone's Medea at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge in the actress' native Australia.
"He was like, 'We should do this. This is exciting. You know—this is 10 minutes from our house,'" Byrne said Cannavale told her about Medea.
Cannavale met Byrne while she was a cast member of the show Damages, which aired from 2007 to 2012. Over the years, she has also become associated with hit comedy films; In addition to the Neighbors movies, she also starred in Bridesmaids and Get Him to the Greek.
Cannavale won an Emmy for his supporting role in Boardwalk Empire and also appeared in the Ant-Man films and most recently, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman.
Most of the onscreen projects the two actors have co-starred in were shot before their sons were born.
"It starts out as a very pragmatic thing," Cannavale told Vanity Fair about working together with Byrne. "You have the kids, the kids are getting bigger, and you don't want to spend the time apart."