Jennifer Lawrence knows all about the trouble actors and actresses usually find themselves in when they express political or religious opinions— but that won’t stop her from speaking her mind.
In a wide-ranging interview with Glamour magazine, the Oscar-winning Hunger Games and Joy star said she struggled with whether or not to write what later became a groundbreaking essay on equal pay in Hollywood.
“I keep going back and forth on being opinionated,” Lawrence told the magazine. “I completely agree when there are actors who say, ‘Actors should stay out of politics. We’re not politicians.’ [And] my business is based on everybody buying tickets and seeing my movie.… It’s not smart, businesswise, to be opinionated. But then what’s the point in having a voice at all if I’m not going to use it for what I truly believe in?”
Hollywood was buzzing last year when Lawrence, recently named the highest-paid actress in the world, penned an essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny newsletter exploring why she was paid less than her male co-stars for the 2014 Sony film American Hustle (although when looking at income based on number of days worked on the film, she was actually the highest-paid on Hustle.) Sony apparently learned its lesson; Lawrence is reportedly set to receive $20 million for her role in the upcoming sci-fi film Passengers, while her co-star Chris Pratt will get $12 million.
But Lawrence says she doesn’t blame Sony for paying her less on American Hustle.
“Because Sony’s a business,” the actress told Glamour. “You’re not gonna give somebody more money if they don’t ask for it. They’ve got to fit a million movie stars into one movie. They’re trying to realistically make this happen. … None of us were getting our [usual] quotes. But the difference in who was getting a little less, and a lot less, than their quote was very vast. And I wanted to write about how I got in my own way. ’Cause I assume that in negotiating, the men were tough as balls.”
In her interview, Lawrence revealed she and fellow actress Amy Schumer have completed a script they began writing together just a few months ago. Lawrence called Schumer “the most empathetic person I’ve ever met in my life.”
When she came over this morning, she was crying. She had just…seen the news about the shooting at Planned Parenthood. It’s so awful…. It isn’t an attack on abortions; it’s an attack on women. Because Planned Parenthood is so much more [than abortion]. My mom was really religious with me when I was young. She’s not so much anymore. And I wouldn’t have been able to get birth control if it weren’t for Planned P. I wouldn’t have been able to get condoms and birth control and all these things I needed as a normal teenager who was growing up in a Jesus house.
“But seriously,” the actress added. “What harm comes from supplying people with birth control, condoms, Pap smears and cancer screenings?”
Lawrence also told Glamour that she feels “over-paid-attention-to.”
“I’m not trying to be a GIF. I’m not trying to be a picked-up-on-Twitter quote,” she said. “All I’m trying to do is act. And I have to promote these movies. And I am, at the end of the day, I guess, a f–king lunatic. So if you record what I’m saying, it’s gonna be goofy.”
Check out more from Lawrence’s interview with Glamour here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.