Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio shared co-headlining duties on Adam McKay's Don't Look Up, a satirical sci-fi comedy slated to premiere on Netflix in December. However, there was a notable gap between the duo's respective salaries for the film.
As Vanity Fair noted in its recent interview with Lawrence, The Hunger Games and X-Men star was paid $25 million for Don't Look Up versus DiCaprio's $30 million. That means she made about 83 cents for every dollar he was paid, which is very close to the 82.3 cents women employed full-time made versus ever dollar paid to men in 2020, based on data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The salary gap is even when it comes to women of color across various industries, film and television included.
Lawrence admitted she was aware of the pay gap between her and fellow Oscar-winner DiCaprio on Don't Look Up. “Look, Leo brings in more box office than I do. I’m extremely fortunate and happy with my deal," she added. "But in other situations, what I have seen -- and I’m sure other women in the workforce have seen as well -- is that it’s extremely uncomfortable to inquire about equal pay. And if you do question something that appears unequal, you’re told it’s not gender disparity but they can’t tell you what exactly it is.”
This isn't the first time Lawrence publicly addressed gender-based pay gaps, having previously written about the issue for the now-defunct newsletter Lenny Letter in an October 2015 essay entitled, "Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co‑Stars?" Therein, Lawrence wrote about her feelings upon learning that she and co-star Amy Adams were paid less for their roles in 2013's American Hustle (a major critical and box office success) than the film's male leads, including Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, and Jeremy Renner.
Rather than being angry at Sony (the studio behind the movie), Lawrence revealed she was upset with herself, feeling she had failed to negotiate a fair deal upon joining the American Hustle cast. "I didn't want to seem 'difficult' or 'spoiled,'" she wrote. "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.'"
Don't Looks Up opens in select theaters Dec. 10 before streaming on Netflix two weeks later.
Source: Vanity Fair
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