14 DAY TRIAL // Amy Pascal, former Co-Chairman at Sony, the movie division, has been let go from that position after the Sony Hack, which saw her emails leaked to the press as hackers from the group known as Guardians of Peace tried to pressure Sony into not releasing the action comedy “The Interview.”
The film, which is a fictional assassination plot targeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was eventually released, but Pascal was still fired by studio bosses, following a huge wave of negative media attention, for the things she wrote in those emails.
She confirmed that she was fired in her first interview on the subject.
Pascal speaks out
It happened the other day at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, during the yearly Women in the World conference. Pascal was interviewed by writer and media entrepreneur Tina Brown, and for the most part of the chat, she seemed completely out of it: both in the sense that she appeared slightly under the influence (allegedly), and in some of the things she was saying.
The interview is available below.
Pascal talks about her so-called feud with Angelina Jolie, whom producer Scott Rudin described in a mail to Pascal as a “minimally talented spoiled brat,” and how they kissed and made up since, she talks about having her personal and business emails leaked, and how, in a sense, that was “freeing.”
She also says that she’s learned a very important lesson from the hacking and having her emails made public: never bad-mouth your collaborators and friends, always be direct and say stuff to their face, not behind their backs, to third parties. Indeed.
Pascal also says she was fired from Sony and admits that she’s “scared” at having to start all over again at the age of 56. She implies that she would never again act the way she did until the hack, but hints that she would never be the kissy-kissy kind because, apparently, you don’t get stuff done in Hollywood if you’re nice and polite.
However, what’s getting people talking about the most is the fact that Pascal seems under the influence, with voices online guessing that she had a few shots before the interview just to calm down her nerves. She seems to be slurring her words and acting as if in a haze, so there’s definitely some ground for these rumors.
Salary gap and how actors are “bottomless pits of need”
Two points that Pascal tackles in the interview are also getting plenty of media attention: the fact that Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were paid less for “American Hustle” than their male counterparts, and the mean things Pascal said about all actors in those emails, including Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio and Will Smith.
As far as the pay gap in Hollywood is concerned, Pascal offers a very simple solution, but one that also proves how out of touch she is with reality because it could never be applicable to anyone else but an actress who is already established and has financial security.
“I run a business. [If] people want to work for less money, I’ll pay them less money. I don’t call them up and go, ‘Can I give you some more?’ cause that’s not what you do when you run a business. The truth is, what women have to do is not work for less money. They have to walk away. People shouldn’t be so grateful for jobs… People should know what they’re worth and say no,” Pascal says.
Actresses like Lawrence and Adams could have walked away or negotiated higher salaries (assuming they knew the men were paid more), but a struggling actress or one that isn’t even close to A-list status are grateful for every opportunity that comes their way. This means that, yes, they will work for less money even if they know they’re worth more.
Pascal describes actors as “bottomless pits of need” who have to be handled with gloves and treated like kids, lest they become upset and start throwing their toys around. It’s ok, though.
“They’re bottomless pits of need. You’ve never seen anything like that,” she says. “They’re so great, because they are this magical thing that no one else can be. It is a duality of those things. They are filled with need to be loved and to be great, but that’s because they’re magical.”
Here is the interview.
