When Sony's emails got hacked last year, The Daily Beast made a startling discovery: Jennifer Lawrence was paid less for American Hustle than Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner, even though she was its biggest star. (The film was greenlit after The Hunger Games.) In fact, all the film's actors were paid more than its actresses, which also included Amy Adams.

Now months later in an op-ed, Jennifer talks the sexist paygrade for the first time in Lenny, Lena Dunham's weekly newsletter for young women:

But if I’m honest with myself, I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight. I didn’t want to seem “difficult” or “spoiled.” 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.” This could be a young-person thing. It could be a personality thing. I’m sure it’s both. But this is an element of my personality that I’ve been working against for years, and based on the statistics, I don’t think I’m the only woman with this issue. Are we socially conditioned to behave this way? We’ve only been able to vote for what, 90 years? I’m seriously asking—my phone is on the counter and I’m on the couch, so a calculator is obviously out of the question. Could there still be a lingering habit of trying to express our opinions in a certain way that doesn’t “offend” or “scare” men?

Jennifer references another Sony email where producer Scott Rudin blasted Angelina Jolie. Angelina was reportedly recruiting David Fincher to direct her film Cleopatra, despite Scott wanting David to direct his Steve Jobs biopic.

"Again, this might have NOTHING to do with my vagina," Jennifer says, "but I wasn't completely wrong when another leaked Sony email revealed a producer referring to a fellow lead actress in a negotiation as a 'spoiled brat.' For some reason, I just can't picture someone saying that about a man."

Read Jennifer Lawrence's op-ed "Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?" at Lenny.