Previously, we shared how Jennifer Lawrence penned down a thoughtful letter regarding equal pay for women. Patricia Arquette’s Oscar acceptance speech was also about the same thing. It can’t be stated enough why this is an issue that should concern us all. It is good to see people like Bradley Cooper standing up for the cause. Although he had not yet read her essay, he supported Lawrence’s assertion that deserving equal pay begins with shifting perceptions and being assertive:
One thing I could say is that’s interesting because if you think that you only deserve a certain amount and that’s not correct, it’s about changing that mindset and sticking up for yourself the way that Sienna did.
He was referencing Miller’s decision to walk away from a Broadway role when she learned how much less she was offered than the only other actor in the production, who was male. Now, according to The Washington Post, he has come up with a unique idea to force employers to change what they pay men and women. He said,
Usually you don’t talk about the financial stuff, you have people. But you know what? It’s time to start doing that.
He said it was “embarrassing” that he earned significantly more cash than Lawrence and Amy Adams in 2013’s award-winning American Hustle, a truth revealed in the Sony Pictures hack. (Both women won Golden Globes for their roles; Cooper did not.)
Bradley Cooper has an amazing idea to fight this. From now on, he plans to fight the gender wage gap with transparency: He’ll tell his female colleagues what he’s making before they ink a deal.
This will allow his female costars to more confidently tell studios “LOL, try again” when they try to offer women less than their male costars.
