Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio both star in Netflix’s upcoming comedy Don’t Look Up, but Lawrence’s paycheck was $5 million less — and here’s why she’s okay with that.
Speaking with IndieWire, the actress, 31, candidly said of her 47-year-old costar, “Look, Leo brings in more box office than I do.”
“I’m extremely fortunate and happy with my deal,” Lawrence explains. “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.”
Don’t Look Up, which was directed by Adam McKay, tells the story of two astronomers, played by Lawrence and DiCaprio, who try to warn people about a comet that could destroy the Earth. Although the Hunger Games star took a lesser payout for the film, she did receive top billing, which means her name will appear before the Titanic star’s in the credits.
“I was number-one on the call sheet,” Lawrence shared. “[Am I ok] with being number one on the call sheet? Yeah. And I thought [the credits] should reflect that.”
“Leo was very gracious about it,” she continued. “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?'”
Don’t Look Up hits Netflix December 10.
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.