14 DAY TRIAL // Last November, many documents obtained in the Sony Hack were made public, including juicy details from inside one of Hollywood’s biggest studio and involving huge names. One detail that got plenty of media attention was the pay gap between the male and the female stars of “American Hustle,” directed by David O. Russell.
Thus, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were paid considerably less than Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner, although they were billed equally. After the revelation, Amy refused to discuss the situation with the press, while Jennifer maintained her silence throughout. Until now, that is.
“I got mad at myself: I failed as a negotiator”
After the Sony Hack, Lawrence refused to talk to the press but she made sure she was never in a similar position again, renegotiating her salaries for her upcoming projects.
Until then, she had no idea that she was being paid less than her male co-stars, but finding out didn’t make her mad at Sony, she says in Lena Dunham’s newsletter Lenny, in a post on the topic of the pay gap in Hollywood.
Instead, she got mad at herself because she hadn’t been able to negotiate a better salary for herself for fear that she might be perceived “difficult” or “spoiled,” as it had happened to Angelina Jolie, who was named in one of the leaked Sony emails a “spoiled brat” for insisting on doing a movie about Cleopatra her way.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight,” she says. “Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, and Bradley Cooper all fought and succeeded in negotiating powerful deals for themselves. If anything, I’m sure they were commended for being fierce and tactical, while I was busy worrying about coming across as a brat and not getting my fair share.”
Lawrence muses on the possibility that this constant worrying of being perceived negatively be an inherently feminine trait. Even if it is, she has learned her lesson, she continues: she knows her worth and she won’t stop asking for what is rightfully hers just so people can think of her “adorable.”
Amy Pascal called it
After the Sony Hack, when Amy Pascal was still head of Sony (she later resigned and took the fall for the scandal brought so much negative attention on the studio), she discussed the issue of the pay gap on “American Hustle” and blamed it not on the studio but on the actresses.
It made sense for the studio to pay them less if they settled for what they were offered, she said. Whenever a woman is paid less, no matter the type of work she does, it’s her fault because, instead of walking away, she accepts the money.
Every woman should know her worth and ask that it be remunerated accordingly, Pascal said. That’s the lesson that Lawrence learned the hard way, at a price of many millions.