The blowback from the Sony hacking ordeal, in which 100 terabytes of stolen data resulted in the publication of executives’ revealing emails, has been seen far and wide. The latest, and perhaps most significant, repercussion came when Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal announced last week that she will step down from her post. The news arrived in the wake of contentious memos about Angelina Jolie’s “spoiled brat” behavior, Jennifer Lawrence’s sexist pay grade and President Barack Obama’s racially driven movie preferences.
During an interview with journalist Tina Brown at Wednesday’s Women in the World conference in San Francisco, Pascal reportedly addressed the various correspondences that have landed her in hot water. Most of note is her comment about Lawrence, whom she says has received a mea culpa from Pascal after it was revealed that her “American Hustle” paycheck was less than those of her male co-stars.
“I’ve paid [Jennifer Lawrence] a lot more money since then, I promise you,” Pascal reportedly said, according to Recode. “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 say, ‘Can I give you some more?’ Because that’s not what you do when you run a business. The truth is, 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.”
Pascal admitted to feeling out of place at the conference: “All I did was get fired,” she said. As for the experience of being labeled a racist for implying Obama has stereotypically black movie tastes, Pascal called it “horrible” but “strangely freeing” because it was out of her control. In addressing her remarks about the “minimally talented” Jolie, Pascal simply said, “The first person I talked to was Angie after that email.”
Ultimately, Pascal said the industry community has been empathetic toward the contents of her and colleagues’ emails, largely because no one is surprised that show business creates a vicious environment.
“Everybody understood because we all live in this weird thing called Hollywood,” she said. “If we all actually were nice, it wouldn’t work.”