Box Office Factor: Jennifer Lawrence defends Leo DiCaprio's higher salary for 'Don't Look Up'
There have been numerous debates about equal pay in Hollywood and things are getting changed a bit since a lot of female actors have been speaking quite vocally about the issue. A lot of female actors in the industry have been raising their voices for pay disparities between male actors and female actors in Hollywood and even though, things are pretty much the same, we have seen some of the male actors demanding equal pay for their female co-stars.
One of the actors who have been quite vocal about the issues is Jennifer Lawrence. The Academy Award-winning star is one of the highest-paid stars in the world and earns millions of dollars for her movies. However, the gap between the highest-paid actor (male) and the highest-paid actor (female) is immense. Lawrence will be next seen in the Netflix movie ‘Don’t Look Up’ alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and a lot of people asked J-Law about why she has been given less money for the movie even when she is the top billing.
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According to a report, the ‘Wolf of the Wall Street’ star earned $30 million for the Adam McKay film while Lawrence received $25 million for her role.
Though gender-based pay gaps continue to be a massive issue in the industry, Lawrence was adamant in defending her co-star getting more money and she had a valid reason to say what she said.
‘He brings more box office’, says Jennifer Lawrence
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the 31-year-old actor was asked about the pay gap between her and DiCaprio. The actor defended DiCaprio’s higher pay and revealed that he “brings in more box office” than she does. Lawrence also said that she felt extremely fortunate and happy with the money she made from the movie.
“Look, Leo brings in more box office than I do. I'm extremely fortunate and happy with my deal. 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,” Lawrence told Vanity Fair.
Despite the pay gap, Lawrence is still the top-billing in the project and her name appears first in the credits. The actor also noted that DiCaprio was “gracious” about her name appearing before him during the credits.
Gender Pay Gap a massive issue in Hollywood
Even though Jennifer Lawrence is happy with what she received for ‘Don’t Look Up’, the issue of pay disparity has been massive in Hollywood. On numerous occasions, the female actors have been denied equal pay even when they are the ones leading a show or a movie.
For example, Brad Pitt received $20 million for the 2005 movie ‘Mr, & Mrs. Smith’ while Angelina Jolie only got $10 million for her role. On the other hand, Charlize Theron got $10 million less than Chris Hemsworth for ‘The Huntsman’. Theron has been working way before Hemsworth made his debut in Hollywood and is one of the leading actors in the world right now.
We can see a huge gap in the annual list of highest-paid actors as well.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson earned more than $80 million last year while Sofia Vergara earned only $43 million in 2020 and became the highest-paid female actor in that calendar year. Well, the debate has been going on for years now and it will carry on in the years to come, so it’ll be interesting to see if we’ll see two top actors (male and female) receiving equal pay for their roles.
‘Don’t Look Up’ premieres on Netflix on Friday, December 24.