Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams paid less than male costars in American Hustle

[Bjorn Against]

6. At first I thought it might be because Lawrence was in a supporting role

Then I saw that Jeremy Renner got paid more than Jennifer Lawrence and that seems extremely hard to justify. Renner was also in a supporting role and he is not nearly as well known, Jennifer Lawrence was featured in all the advertising for the movie while Renner's name was barely used in the marketing campaign. I could understand Amy Adams making a bit less because while she is a very gifted actress she does not have the star power of Lawrence, Cooper, or Bale. I could understand Christian Bale making more than Lawrence considering he had a much bigger role in the movie than she did. You might be able to justify Cooper making more than Lawrence although that becomes a lot more difficult, while his role was bigger than Lawrence's he still fell into the supporting actor category. He is a big star, but Lawrence is an even bigger star so it seems like she would make the same as him.

I just can't think of any reason other than sexism for Renner making more however, he is a talented enough actor and everything but he was in a supporting role and he does not have the big name star power that Jennifer Lawrence does. Jennifer Lawrence is arguably the biggest star in Hollywood right now male or female, even if her role in the movie was relatively small she still no doubt helped to sell a lot more tickets than Jeremy Renner did.