Jennifer Lawrence on gender pay gap: “I didn’t want to seem difficult – I’m mad at myself”

Speaking out: Jennifer Lawrence opens up about the gender pay gap
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Jennifer Ruby13 October 2015
The Weekender

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Jennifer Lawrence has broken her silence on the Hollywood gender pay gap after details of her American Hustle salary were leaked in the Sony hack.

The Oscar-winner has admitted that she felt ‘mad’ at herself after failing to push for the same pay as her male co-stars Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner.

In a post on Lena Dunham’s newsletter, Lenny, Lawrence wrote:

“When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with d**ks, I didn’t get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself.

World premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 at Odeon Leicester Square

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“I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early. I didn’t want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don’t need.”

The 25-year-old explained that her unwillingness to push for more money was also to do with wanting to be ‘liked’.

“But if I’m honest with myself, 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 said.

“I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’”

Lawrence continued: “At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being “difficult” or “spoiled.”

“This could be a young-person thing. It could be a personality thing. I’m sure it’s both. But this is an element of my personality that I’ve been working against for years, and based on the statistics, I don’t think I’m the only woman with this issue.”

During the Sony hack last December, it was revealed that Lawrence and Amy Adams made 7% of the film’s profit, while their male co-stars all received 9%.

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