Jennifer Lawrence: 'I'm mad at myself over equal pay drama'

Jennifer Lawrence got mad at herself when she discovered she earned less than her male American Hustle co-stars because she had failed to fight for more money.

In November (14), the databases at Sony Pictures Entertainment were infiltrated by cyber criminals, and private emails, personal information and financial details were leaked onto the Internet.

The documents revealed Jennifer and her American Hustle co-star Amy Adams were paid significantly less than their male colleagues Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale, and the leak reignited the debate about the gender pay gap in the movie industry.

Jennifer remained silent on the topic until Tuesday (13Sep15) when an article she wrote, titled Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?, was published in Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter bulletin.

The movie star confessed she did not ask for a higher salary because she did not want to seem difficult, and because she felt she had earned enough money from her other projects, including The Hunger Games franchise and The X-Men prequels.

"When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people (men), I didn't get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself," she writes. "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.

"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. I didn't want to seem 'difficult' or 'spoiled.' At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realised 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...

"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. Again, this might have nothing to do with my vagina, but I wasn't completely wrong when another leaked Sony email revealed a producer referring to a fellow lead actress in a negotiation as a 'spoiled brat' (sic). For some reason, I just can't picture someone saying that about a man."