Jennifer Lawrence Essay Draws Support From Hollywood’s Heavy Hitters

Jennifer Lawrence has been outspoken about the issues of gender equality and the rights of female professionals in Hollywood for months, but nothing has drawn the kind of attention that Lawrence’s recent essay has drawn. In fact, the essay penned by Jennifer, which is as refreshingly honest as it is personally revealing, has earned Lawrence praise from her former co-star, Bradley Cooper, as well as from some of Hollywood’s most beloved actresses.

Jennifer Lawrence Becomes One Of Hollywood’s Most Outspoken Feminists With A Single Essay

The essay written by Jennifer Lawrence and posted to Lenny begins with the actress referring back to her younger Hollywood days, when Jennifer was less outspoken and far more concerned with getting along with her new peers. Lawrence also shares her strong aversion to going along with anything that seems like a trend just for the sake of it, sharing her refusal to get in on the ice bucket challenge, because, although the charity behind it did save lives, she felt that the cause was lost in the trendiness of the challenge.

That said, Jennifer shared that she has felt strongly about feminism in Hollywood and, more specifically, the gender wage gap, ever since the Sony email hack opened The Hunger Games actress’ eyes to the reality of the situation.

“When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with d***s, I didn’t get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early. I didn’t want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don’t need.”

Lawrence admitted in the essay that her reluctance to fight for higher wages, as her male counterparts have done, was due in part to her desire to be liked and not to be thought of as spoiled or privileged. Jennifer considers the possibility that women are still raised and conditioned to not be difficult in their professional dealings, so that the female gender, as a whole, doesn’t act in ways to offend their male counterparts.

Jennifer added that, on recent occasions where the X-Men actress did express her opinion in a straight-forward manner, she was immediately chastised for being too aggressive and confrontational. Lawrence finds the very idea that being forthright in her opinions is somehow threatening to the male gender to be insulting.

“I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable! F*** that. I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard. It’s just heard. Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, and Bradley Cooper all fought and succeeded in negotiating powerful deals for themselves.”

American Hustle‘s Bradley Cooper And Harry Potter‘s Emma Watson Respond To Jennifer Lawrence’s Essay

Jennifer Lawrence once referred to Bradley Cooper as her movie-making husband, because the two performers feel as comfortable working together as an old, married couple, and there’s no denying that they bring a rare chemistry to the films in which they work together. In fact, Cooper and Lawrence seem refreshingly friendly off camera, so it may be no surprise that Bradley recently sided with Jennifer and her efforts to bring an end to the gender wage gap in Hollywood.

“There’s a double standard in the whole world, yeah, for sure. This is just one aspect,” 40-year-old Bradley Cooper said, according to People. “Anytime there’s a place where a voice can come out and be outspoken – something Sienna did, or Jennifer – that’s great … I think it is making a difference.”

Cooper wasn’t alone in his praise of Jennifer Lawrence and her outspoken essay. Jessica Chastain and Elizabeth Banks are just a few of the Hollywood actresses adding their praise, encouraging Lawrence to continue to fight for the respect and appropriate compensation she deserves. Even Emma Watson, who has long been another voice in the fight for gender equality, took to Twitter to respond to Lawrence’s essay.

“I’m over trying to find the “adorable” way to state my opinion”.

— Emma Watson (@EmWatson) October 13, 2015

O Jennifer Lawrence I love you so. X

— Emma Watson (@EmWatson) October 13, 2015

[Featured image: Jennifer Lawrence courtesy of Mark Davis / Getty Images]