LOS ANGELES • Emma Stone said earlier this year that her male co-stars had taken pay cuts so she could be paid more.
Those bigger cheques have now enabled the Oscar-winning actress to knock Jennifer Lawrence off the top spot on this year's Forbes list of the world's highest-paid actresses.
Stone, who won Best Actress for her role as a struggling performer in La La Land (2016), made US$26 million (S$35.5 million) in pre-tax earnings in the year up to June.
Friends star Jennifer Aniston grabbed the No. 2 spot, with earnings of US$25.5 million, boosted by numerous endorsement deals.
Lawrence's US$24 million was enough for third spot, but was a shadow of her earnings in the last Forbes list. She had topped last year's chart for a second year with US$46 million.
Melissa McCarthy, with US$18 million, and Mila Kunis, with US$15.5 million, rounded off the top five.
The top 10 - also including Emma Watson, Charlize Theron, Cate Blanchett, Julia Roberts and Amy Adams - made a combined US$172.5 million, down 16 per cent from last year's US$205 million.
The actors' list, to be published later in the week, is expected to show, once again, the men earning far more than the women.
The issue of pay disparity grabbed headlines in 2014 after a leak of e-mails from Sony Pictures Entertainment showed that Lawrence was paid less than her male co-stars in hit film American Hustle (2013).
Last year, Dwayne Johnson topped Forbes' list of highest-paid actors at US$64.5 million, more than double Stone's total this year.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
