WATCH ABOVE: Amy Pascal spoke out about the gender pay gap in the film industry at a recent conference.
TORONTO – The former Sony executive, whose leaked emails revealed contentious memos about Angelina Jolie, President Barack Obama and Jennifer Lawrence, spoke out about the gender pay gap in the film industry at a recent conference.
Amy Pascal, whose emails were leaked during the Sony hacking ordeal, spoke to journalist Tina Brown at a Women in the World conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.
She said Jennifer Lawrence, who was paid less than her male co-stars in American Hustle, didn’t ask, so she didn’t get the money.
“Here’s the problem: I run a business. People want to work for less money, I’ll pay them less money. I don’t call them up and go ‘can I give you some more?’ because that’s not what you do when you run a business.”
“The truth is, that what women have to do is not work for less money. They have to walk away. People shouldn’t be so grateful for jobs.”
“People should know what they’re worth and say no.”
She went on to say that the “most important thing” the film industry can do is to make female characters central to the plot of the movie.
“The most important thing that we can do in our business is making movies with female protagonists and female villain and where the plot of the movie is about them, where actually their actions have consequences in the story,” she said.
“I think there is a subliminal message for everyone, good or bad, move the plot.”
Sony Pictures announced last week that Pascal had stepped down as the head of the film studio and would start a new venture at Sony. Now working as a producer, she’s inherited some of the studio’s largest upcoming projects including the next Spider-Man film.
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