Jennifer Lawrence Speaks Out on Hollywood Pay Gap: I’ll Always Make Less ‘Because of My Vagina’

One year later, and Jennifer Lawrence is telling fans to look up her salary for Oscar-nominated apocalypse film “Don’t Look Up.”

The Oscar winner previously clarified that she was “extremely fortunate and happy” with her salary deal for the Adam McKay film, which gave Lawrence top billing but a $5 million-less paycheck compared to co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. Still, Lawrence said in a new Vogue cover story that such pay gaps remain frustrating overall, citing that she was paid less than her male co-stars on “American Hustle” in 2013 for a role which Lawrence earned an Oscar nod for.

“It doesn’t matter how much I do,” Lawrence said. “I’m still not going to get paid as much as that guy, because of my vagina?”

Lawrence also addressed the sexism and misogyny of American politics, culminating in the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade.

The “Winter’s Bone” actress told Vanity Fair last year that “Don’t Look Up” co-star DiCaprio was “very gracious” about her getting top billing, as she was the first actor to read the script; McKay also said he wrote the part of an astronomy grad student for her.

“I think we had something called a Laverne & Shirley, which is this billing they invented where it’s an equal billing. But I guess maybe somewhere down the line, I kicked the stone further, like, ‘What if it wasn’t equal?'” Lawrence said.

An annual Variety report on acting salaries in Hollywood published in August 2021 stated that DiCaprio earned $30 million for “Don’t Look Up” and Lawrence was paid $25 million. As Vanity Fair noted, Lawrence made 83 cents to DiCaprio’s dollar, exactly reflective of the reported 2020 gender pay gap in America.

“Yeah, I saw that too,” Lawrence said at the time. “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.”