Chris Rock thinks Jennifer Lawrence should stop complaining about her movie pay as black women get paid far less than white actresses.
The SNL alumnus told the New Yorker that the Hungers 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.”
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.”
Jennifer Lawrence wrote a famous essay in the Lenny newsletter in October slamming gender pay inequality in Hollywood. The actress, who’s currently starring in the movie Joy, discovered she was paid far less than her male co-stars after the Sony Hack in the movie American Hustle.
Chris Rock opened up about helping other black comedians in the industry. In fact, Chris Rock met Leslie Jones in the late 1980s and after 30 years struggling to make it in the industry Rock helped her land her biggest role yet, a job on Saturday Night Live.
“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 looking for new talent.
“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.
Leslie Jones is now the oldest cast member Saturday Night Live had ever hired.
