Jennifer Lawrence on Hollywood's gender pay gap: 'I didn't want to seem difficult or spoiled'

Jennifer Lawrence has addressed the Sony hack that revealed she was paid significantly less than her male co-stars, saying she was mad at herself for not negotiating more money and focused too much on being liked.

Writing for Lenny, the email newsletter curated by Lena Dunham, Lawrence said the leak, which revealed she was paid less than her American Hustle co-star Bradley Cooper, made her realise she was failing herself by not fighting for what she was owed.

“ 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,” she said. “I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled’.

“At the time that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll … and realised every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled’.”

At one point, she refers to men as “lucky people with d**ks” and says she gave up negotiating because fighting over millions of dollars wasn’t something she needed to do anymore due to the money she has made from the X-Men and Hunger Games franchises.

But in her piece, she says she understands now that the principle is more important than the money.

“I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likeable! F**k that,” she says, noting that colleges including Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper all successfully fought for more lucrative deals.

She also refers to the second Sony leak that saw a producer brand Angelina Jolie “a spoiled brat” - although Lawrence does not mention Jolie by name.

“I just can’t picture someone saying that about a man,” she says.

Though the fight for equal pay is far from over, the good news is that J-Law is earning twice as much as her co-star Chris Pratt in their upcoming film Passengers.