Two-time Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou is opening up concerning the monetary realities of his Hollywood profession.

Regardless of roles in such acclaimed movies as Ridley Scott's Gladiator, Steven Spielberg's Amistad, and Edward Zwick's Blood Diamond — the latter two having earned him Academy Award nominations — Hounsou says he isn't compensated pretty for his work.

"I'm nonetheless struggling to make a dwelling,” the actor admitted throughout an interview for CNN’s African Voices Changemakers. "I've been on this enterprise making movies now for over 20 years with two Oscar nominations, been in lots of blockbuster movies, and but I'm nonetheless struggling financially. I'm undoubtedly underpaid.”

Gladiator cast: See Russell Crowe and the rest of the original stars, then and now

The actor has embraced franchise and big-budget alternatives lately, showing in motion pictures like Guardians of the Galaxy, Livid 7, Disney's reside motion The Legend of Tarzan, Captain Marvel, Shazam, A Quiet Place Half II, and Zack Snyder's Insurgent Moon.

Hounsou first broke out with a number one function in Spielberg's 1997 historic drama, Amistad, and although his efficiency was critically acclaimed, he was ignored when it got here time for Oscar nominations — although his costar Anthony Hopkins was not.

"I used to be nominated for the Golden Globe, however they ignored me for the Oscars, speaking about the truth that they thought that I had simply got here off the boat and off the streets," Hounsou recalled within the CNN interview. "Though I efficiently did that [film], they simply didn't really feel like I used to be an actor to whom they need to pay any respect. This conceptual thought of variety nonetheless has a protracted option to go."

When the interviewer voiced shock that Hounsou continues to be underpaid regardless of his accolades and stature within the business, the actor replied, "That's an indication for you that systemic racism is just not one thing you possibly can cope with flippantly. It's so deeply inserted in all the things that we do, throughout the board."

This isn’t the primary time Hounsou has addressed the difficulty of pay fairness for folks of shade in Hollywood. Whereas selling his function within the blockbuster DC movie Shazam! Fury of the Gods, he informed The Guardian that he feels "cheated" by the inequalities he's skilled all through his profession.

"I've come up within the enterprise with some people who find themselves completely properly off and have little or no of my accolades," Hounsou informed the outlet. "So I really feel cheated, tremendously cheated, by way of funds and by way of the workload as properly. I nonetheless need to show why I have to receives a commission. They all the time come at me with an entire low ball: 'We solely have this a lot for the function, however we love you a lot and we actually suppose you possibly can carry a lot.'"

Olivia Colman slams Hollywood pay hole: 'If I used to be Oliver Colman, I'd be incomes a f— of much more'

He added that fellow actor Viola Davis described the difficulty "superbly," explaining, "She's gained an Oscar, she's gained an Emmy, she's gained a Tony, and she or he nonetheless can't receives a commission. Movie after movie, it's a wrestle. I’ve but to fulfill the movie that paid me pretty."

Davis famously commented on the difficulty throughout a panel at a 2018 Girls of the World occasion, the place she famous, "I’ve a profession that's in all probability corresponding to Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Sigourney Weaver… Individuals say, 'You're a Black Meryl Streep. There is no such thing as a one such as you.' Okay, then if there's nobody like me, you suppose I'm that, you pay me what I'm price. You give me what I'm price."

Hounsou, who grew up in Benin and France earlier than shifting to the U.S. on the age of 23 to pursue performing, defined that his work on Amistad impressed the creation of his Djimon Hounsou Basis, which seeks to "champion a visceral connection between the nations of the African diaspora and the motherland and to heal the injuries that slavery left behind," per its web site.

Need extra film information? Join Leisure Weekly's free e-newsletter to get the newest trailers, celeb interviews, movie critiques, and extra.

"My performing work actually opened my eyes," Hounsou stated. "As I used to be doing analysis for [Amistad], I turned profoundly conscious of the disconnect between Afro descendants from their roots and tradition. As a result of if you don't know the place you got here from, you don't know who you might be."

He continued, "I had this compelling have to do one thing for my folks, for my continent, and that was actually what compelled me to begin my [foundation] so a few years later."

Shut