Joe: “The Rise of Cobra”, refused to be trapped in the practice of wage inequality in the entertainment industry when she backed out of a theater play due to her finding out that her co-star in the show was going to get double her salary when there were only two characters in the play. How sad that you can be worth millions of dollars, lead one of the most successful movie franchises in history and have won an Oscar, and yet still you need to worry about sounding “adorable” when stating your viewpoint.
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When the news initially came out that Lawrence was paid less, people pointed fingers at the people who were doing the paying, Sony, to which then co-chair Amy Pascal responded, “I run a business”.
Over the last few days, Jennifer Lawrence‘s essay about earning less than the men she stars with has gone viral, because she’s done putting up with sexism.
She said that when she found out from Sony emails leaked a year ago that she was paid less than her male co-stars in the hit-movie “American Hustle”, she didn’t get mad at Sony but at herself.
In her essay for Lenny (which you should read in full), Lawrence lamented her inability / unwillingness to negotiate for a higher pay rate, explaining that she – like many women in Hollywood – did not want to seem hard for asking for fair pay. A performance review where your driven, ambitious, competitive boss tells you that you’re too “aggressive”, is a situation that happens far too often to women.
Jennifer Lawrence spoke for many women when she penned an article on the perils of being too nice.
The Hunger Games star wrote, “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”.
So when Lawrence wrote, “I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early”, a lot of that blame goes to the people she pays not to give up early. Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner (who had a smaller role in the film) all received more than the women who shared equal (or more) screen time.
In an interview with Reuters, Cooper said he will begin sharing the pay he is offered for films to his female costars to help them better their negotiating position. But you know what?
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“I don’t know where it’s changing otherwise but that’s something that I could do”, Cooper said.
