Chris Rock on Jennifer Lawrence: 'If she was black, she’d really have something to complain about'
By Maane Khatchatourian - Variety Magazine
Chris Rock thinks Jennifer Lawrence has a lot less to complain about than black women when it comes to her movie pay.
The comic told the New Yorker that the “Hunger Games” star would have far greater problems in the industry “if she was black.”
“Black women have the hardest gig in show business,” he told the New Yorker for a profile on “Saturday Night Live’s” Leslie Jones. “You hear Jennifer Lawrence complaining about getting paid less because she’s a woman — if she was black, she’d really have something to complain about.”
Lawrence wrote a now-famous essay in the Lenny newsletter in October slamming the gender pay inequality in Hollywood. The actress, who’s currently starring in “Joy,” discovered following last year’s Sony hack that she earned less than her male co-stars in “American Hustle” — Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner.
“I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable! F--- that,” she concluded in the essay titled “Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?” Lawrence has since been extremely vocal about the issue of gender parity.
Rock, who met Jones, 48, as they were getting their feet wet in the comedy scene in the late 1980s, helped the comedian land her current gig on “Saturday Night Live” after she struggled to catch her big break, working 25 years as a road comic.
“Every black comedian in the country knew what I could do,” Jones said in the article. “But that doesn’t mean everyone else is paying attention.”
Rock asked “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels to give Jones the opportunity to audition for the NBC sketch comedy show when the executive producer was searching for new female cast members last December.
“I mentioned her to several managers and agents over the years. Everybody passed. Lorne, because he’s the best at what he does, is the one who saw it. I don’t think he’d hired a cast member her age in a long time,” Rock said.
Jones — the oldest cast member “SNL” had ever hired — will star in Paul Feig’s “Ghostbusters” reboot for Sony.
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Originally Posted by Goofy
