Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence wins Hollywood gender pay gap battle

[dropcap]H[/dropcap]UNGER Games star Jennifer Lawrence is bridging the Hollywood pay gap by earning double what her male co-star Chris Pratt will take in her next movie. Lawrence spoke out against gender inequality after it emerged she earned less than her male counterparts in Oscar-nominated hit American Hustle.
But it’s emerged that she’ll join an elite group of movie-stars that can command a $20million fee (£13million) for her next movie, Passengers – double what Guardians Of The Galaxy leading man Chris Pratt will reportedly receive.
Just five years ago, Lawrence was earning just $3,000 (£2,000) a week for her breakthrough role in Winter’s Bone, a low-budget drama about a struggling teenager with a criminal father.
But she’s been catapulted to success with some high-profile performances in box-office smash hits that have turned her into Hollywood’s darling, popular with audiences and critics alike.
She was reportedly paid just $1million (£700,000) for her role as Katniess Everdeen in the original Hunger Games movie, which grossed more than $400million (£260million).
But she got $10million (£6.5) for the sequel, Catching Fire, and $15million (£10million) for the two-part finale, Mockingjay, the second of which is due to open in November.
She was thrust to the forefront of the equal pay debate after leaked emails between Sony executives revealed that she and Amy Adams, the female leads in American Hustle, received less than their male costars.
The women got seven per cent shares of the profits while director David O Russell and the three leading men, Bradley Cooper, Chrisitan Bale and Jeremy Renner, got nine per cent.
The news sparked fury among many prominent actresses, including Charlize Theron, who then demanded that she was paid an equal amount to costar Chris Hemsworth in their next film Snow White And The Huntsman.
‘If you’re doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way,’ she told Elle Magazine.
But now she’s got the perfect revenge, negotiating the $20million (£13million) fee for her latest movie Passengers, a space travel romance, also with Sony.
It’s a large proportion of a film that the studio’s budgeted $80-95million for, in which she plays an interstellar traveller, awoken early from deep sleep long before she is due to arrive at a new planet.
But in the wake of the stolen email scandal, Sony reportedly tried to renegotiate the deal due to questions over profitability because of limited scope for sequels.
But she reportedly threatened to walk out unless the fee was met, and director Morten Tyldum allegedly said he would go with her. Her management now says the deal is ‘watertight’.

Here’s the winner’s list in full

Entertainment Programme – Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway
Mini-Series – The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies
Factual Series – Life and Death Row
International – True Detective
News Coverage – Sky News Live at Five’s Ebola reports
Features – Grand Designs
Single Documentary – The Paedophile Hunter
Sport and Live Event – World War One Remembered
Current Affairs – Children on the Frontline: Dispatches
Supporting Actor – Stephen Rea, The Honourable Woman
Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme – The Graham Norton Show
Supporting Actress – Gemma Jones, Marvellous
Special Award – Jeff PopeSoap and Continuing Drama – Coronation Street
Drama Series – Happy Valley
Male in a Comedy – Matt Berry, Toast of London
Specialist Factual – Grayson Perry: Who Are You?
Radio Times Award – Sherlock
Female in a Comedy – Jessica Hynes, W1A
Special Award – Clive James
Reality and Constructed Factual – The Island with Bear Grylls
Single Drama – Marvellous
Scripted Comedy – Detectorists
Entertainment Performance – Ant and Dec, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway
Leading Actress – Georgina Campbell, Murdered By My Boyfriend
Leading Actor – Jason Watkins, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies
Fellowship – Jon Snow