Michelle Williams has spoken out about her shock at learning that her male co-star was paid over $1 million more than her to reshoot scenes in a film – and implored lawmakers to do more to ensure men and women are paid equally for the same work.

Tuesday 2 April was Equal Pay Day in the US: the day signifying how far into the year women in the States must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. To mark the occasion, Williams travelled to Washington DC to deliver a speech on Capitol Hill in front of Democratic women politicians, in which she discussed her own experience of being paid dramatically less than a male colleague for the same work.

In 2017, it emerged that Williams had been paid much less than her co-star Mark Wahlberg to take part in reshoots for Ridley Scott’s film All the Money in the World. The reshoots were necessary after the movie’s lead, Kevin Spacey, was dropped from the cast in the wake of sexual assault allegations made against him.

But while Wahlberg made $1.5 million for the reshoots, Williams was paid less than $1,000.

“In late 2017, the news broke that I’d been paid less than $1,000 compared to the $1.5 million that my male counterpart had received for the exact same amount of work,” Williams said, per People.

She was speaking in front of an audience containing prominent politicians including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Deb Haaland, one of the first Native American women elected to the US Congress.

Michelle Williams urges politicians to take action on the gender pay gap