Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence has twice now been a victim of data hacking, with stolen nude photos of her leaked online in 2014, as well as her payment for the movie American Hustle laid bare for the world to see in the Sony hack of late last year.
The actress, arguably the most powerful leading lady currently in Hollywood, has opened up about how she suffered from the gender pay gap in a new essay in today’s Lenny Letter, a feminist newsletter from Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, the creators of the HBO show Girls.
In the blunt and upfront style that has made Lawrence a hit on the talk-show circuit, the actress acknowledges in her piece that her gender-gap experience is atypical to the average working woman. But she says that when she discovered her pay was less than her male American Hustle counterparts, she wasn’t angry at the studio, rather peeved with her own performance at the negotiating table.
“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. (I told you it wasn’t relatable, don’t hate me),” she writes.
Bradley Cooper, who earned millions more when he co-starred in American Hustle, and Jennifer Lawrence at a screening of Serena in March [Evan Agostini/Invision/AP]
Lawrence uses her Lenny Letter essay to ask whether she and millions of other women give up earlier than men when fighting for better working conditions because they are concerned they will be perceived as selfish or whiny.
“Are we socially conditioned to behave this way? We’ve only been able to vote for what, 90 years?” Lawrence writes. “Could there still be a lingering habit of trying to express our opinions in a certain way that doesn’t ‘offend’ or ‘scare’ men?”
Lawrence has joined a growing chorus of women in Hollywood using celebrity as a platform to address the gender issues that still persist in the business, including Patricia Arquette’s Oscar speech in February, and Viola Davis’ Emmy speech last month.
Lawrence rounds up her essay by explaining that her days of worrying what men think about her approach are long gone, and that she will be striving harder to close the gap.
“I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable!” she writes. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard. It’s just heard.”
