This post has been updated since it was originally published to include recent facts
Jennifer Lawrence once again opened up about the gender pay gap in Hollywood, telling Vogue that she found the fact that her Don’t Look Up co-star Leonardo DiCaprio made $5M more than she did “bothersome,” despite her being number one on the call sheet. “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 said when speaking with the fashion bible.
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Jennifer Lawrence Discusses 'Don't Look Up' Pay Gap
The 32-year-old Oscar-winning actress first commented on her and Leo's paychecks for the Adam McKay movie – which also featured Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, and Cate Blanchett, among others – in the December 2021 issue of Vanity Fair, revealing that the 48-year-old The Revenant actor got paid $5M more than her, even though she was "number one on the call sheet" *and* even though they had equal screen time.
According to reports, DiCaprio earned $30M for the movie, while Lawrence earned $25M, meaning that she earned 83 cents to his dollar. As part of her Vanity Fair interview, the mom-of-one initially told the publication that she pushed hard for top billing in the movie’s opening credits, and Leo was "gracious" enough not to challenge it, despite the pair initially having "diagonal billing."
"I was number one on the call sheet, so… I thought the credits should reflect that. Leo was very gracious about it," the Passengers actress told the mag, adding: "I guess maybe somewhere down the line, I kicked the stone further, like, 'What if it wasn’t equal?'" However, after finding out about the pay gap, the Hunger Games star surprisingly defended her co-star, and very humbly and graciously said that the Oscar-winning actor's name most likely has more clout than hers does.
"Look, Leo brings in more box office than I do. I’m extremely fortunate and happy with my deal," the Red Sparrow actress said, before adding that in general, pay inequality is something that she knows makes people very uncomfortable. "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."
Jennifer Lawrence Was Paid Less Than Her Male Co-Stars In 'American Hustle' Too
This isn’t the first of J-Law's movies to pay her less than her male co-stars. Back in 2014, it was revealed that Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper were paid more than her and Amy Adams for American Hustle, after the Sony Pictures computers were hacked into and the cast's salaries were revealed.
According to reports, Jennifer was paid $1.5M while Bale was paid $2.5M, and she said in an interview at the time: "It’s hard for me to speak about my experience as a working woman because I can safely say my problems aren’t exactly relatable. When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with [expletive] I didn’t get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself." She added: "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)."
