Jennifer Lawrence has admitted that she was frustrated to learn she was taking home $5 million less than Leonardo DiCaprio for her role in “Don’t Look Up.” The Netflix dark comedy movie, written by Adam McKay, starred the two actors as scientists who discovered an earth-destroying comet that no one seemed to care about or take seriously. And while both Lawrence and DiCaprio had leading roles and equal screen time, her male co-star still got more money.
While it might seem a bit ludicrous for an actor to complain about making $25 million for a movie that was only lackluster at best, the principle behind Jennifer Lawrence’s complaint about her pay for “Don’t Look Up” still stands. This is especially true as the gender pay gap still exists across the board, with women earning only 83 cents on every dollar made by a man. How is that fair, exactly? It’s definitely not.
Jennifer Lawrence’s pay for “Don’t Look Up” simply wasn’t fair
“It doesn’t matter how much I do. I’m still not going to get paid as much as that guy, because of my vagina?” she told Vogue, calling the reality of the situation “bothersome.” Well, that’s an understatement. However, she is quick to acknowledge that actors as a whole are “overpaid.” Nevertheless, that doesn’t invalidate her argument.
What makes things worse is that this isn’t the first time this has happened to her. Take, for instance, the 2014 movie “American Hustle.” Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale were paid way more than Lawrence and co-star Amy Adams for the project. However, she only found out about it much later.
“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,” she wrote in an essay at the time.
Featured image credit: Netflix
