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Scarlett Johansson Thinks Talking About Gender Pay Gap Is ‘Obnoxious,’ Jennifer Lawrence Sounds Off

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 03:51 PST, Apr 8, 2016

Scarlett Johansson doesn’t want to talk about the gender pay gap. Johansson, who is a main cast member of several big studio tentpole projects, thinks it’s obnoxious to discuss the wage disparity between men and women.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Johansson states that she does see herself as fortunate because she makes a good living doing what she loves. The actress, who plays Black Widow in the Avenger films, spoke about getting paid equally to her male peers.

Then, she spoke about the gender pay gap disparity and had a few choice words.

“I think every woman has [been underpaid], but unless I’m addressing it as a larger problem, for me to talk about my own personal experience with it feels a little obnoxious. It’s part of a larger conversation about feminism in general.”

Johansson’s comments echo American Hustle star Amy Adams. The actress made headlines for disagreeing with co-star Jennifer Lawrence, who penned an essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny newsletter about finding out that she was paid significantly less than all of her male co-stars in American Hustle. What Lawrence failed to mention is that Adams was paid the least amount of money out of everyone if the Sony leak was correct.

In an interview with British GQ, the Academy Award-nominated actress explained why she didn’t back Jennifer Lawrence up when her essay went public.

“I didn’t speak about it before and I’m probably not going to speak about it forever, because I disagreed with… not Jennifer per se, but people who had opinions on how women should go about negotiating.”

Adams continued, “The truth is we hire people to negotiate on our behalf, men and women… I knew I was being paid less and I still agreed to do it because the option comes down to do it or don’t do it. So you just have to decide if it’s worth it for you. It doesn’t mean I liked it.”

As for Johansson’s comments, Jennifer Lawrence didn’t speak to the quotes, but she did admit that some of the criticisms thrown at her for the essay were tough to deal with.

“I had no idea it was going to blow up like that. And I obviously only absorbed the negative. I didn’t pay any attention to the positive feedback. My parents get really upset. They do not like me speaking out about anything political because it’s hard to see your kid take criticism.”

That said, it sounds like she’s over the haters.

“People who criticized it are people who think women should not be paid the same as men. So I don’t really care what those people think.”

Lawrence continued to state that she doesn’t try to pay too much attention to the “poor rich girl” argument that the haters make. She says while she lives a fabulous life, the fight has to do with women who don’t live her reality on a day-to-day business.

There are many people who share Scarlett Johansson and Amy Adams’ arguments about the conversation around gender gap pay. Aside from actress-turned-Fox correspondent Stacey Dash, who doesn’t think there’s a disparity, actress Kate Winslet called the debate “a bit vulgar” for her taste. Winslet said that she didn’t think it was a great conversation to have publicly.

“I understand why they are coming up but maybe it’s a British thing. I don’t like talking about money; it’s a bit vulgar isn’t it?”

[Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images]

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