Jennifer Lawrence: Katniss Everdeen inspired her wage gap essay

While Katniss Everdeen was inspiring the citizens of Panem to revolt in The Hunger Games movies, she also ended up passing some inspiration onto Jennifer Lawrence herself. In October, Lawrence penned an essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letternewsletter about Hollywood’s gender pay gap, which spurred a largely positive response from other actors, both female and male.

At a recent news conference for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, Lawrence was asked whether playing Katniss “had motivated her to address the issue,” Reuters reports.

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“I don’t see how I couldn’t be inspired by this character,” Lawrence said. “I mean I was so inspired by her when I read the books, it’s the reason I wanted to play her…. So I think it would be impossible to go four years with this character and not be inspired by her.”

Donald Sutherland, who plays President Snow, chimed in, saying that working on a film could spur change. “I know that it can, because Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick’s film, politicized me in 1956.”

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Lawrence’s essay came months after it was revealed, via the Sony hack, that she was paid less for American Hustle than her male costars. In the piece, Lawrence wrote that the premium she put on being “liked” influenced her decision to avoid stronger negotiation. “I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled,'” she wrote. “At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.'”

“I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable! F— that,” she added later in the essay. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard. It’s just heard.”

Head to Reuters for more on the story.