Womenequal payFelicity Jones

Felicity Jones On Why We Need To Keep Talking About Pay Equality

“I want to be paid fairly for the work that I’m doing."
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By 

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

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Felicity Jones at a press conference on Nov. 22.
Victor Chavez via Getty Images

Felicity Jones is all about getting paid what she’s worth. 

The 33-year-old actress recently sat down with Glamour for the magazine’s January cover story to talk about equal pay, her feminist upbringing and her upcoming (and badass) role in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” 

Jones ― who is reportedly getting paid twice as much as her male co-stars in “Rogue One” ― doesn’t think think being paid fairly should be anything but routine for women.  

“I want to be paid fairly for the work that I’m doing. That’s what every single woman around the world wants,” Jones said. “We want to be paid on parity with a man in a similar position. And I think it’s important to talk about it.” 

She specifically pointed to the importance of high-profile actresses like Jennifer Lawrence and Patricia Arquette publicly calling out the gender wage gap.

“It’s brave of [Lawrence and Arquette] to come forward and make a point about it,” Jones said. “Now younger actresses will have a confidence in those discussions with their agents and be able to say, ‘Can we make sure that I’m being paid the right amount for the work that I’m doing?’”

Jones said she was excited to play the lead character, Jyn, in “Rogue One” because Jyn is a three-dimensional character who isn’t there to simply be eye candy. 

“The opportunity to play someone determined, who’s trying to find her skills as a leader; to be in a fantasy movie; to be able to do a leading female role in a film of that scale ― that’s very, very rare,” Jones told Glamour.

Jones said that from the beginning director Gareth Edwards told her, “I want guys to watch it and be like, ‘I want to be Jyn!’” She added that throughout the film, viewers won’t even see Jyn’s arms because Edwards didn’t want to sexualize the character. 

“A female friend of mine said, ‘I love that Jyn looks how we look, with trousers and a long-sleeved top,’” Jones said. “We aren’t in hot pants. When do women walk around wearing hot pants?”

When Glamour’s Karen Valby asked if Jones’ “feminist needs” were met by “Rogue One” Jones replied:

I’ve always been a feminist, and what I love in my work is being able to explore a full-sided woman and not patronize her. Particularly with Jyn, it’s such a rare opportunity to be able to play a female who’s not just thinking about [romantic] relationships.

Jyn sounds like a excellent character to play ― and watch ― to us.

Head over to Glamour to read Jones’ full interview. 

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Before You Go

Famous Women Who Know You Deserve Equal Pay
Viola Davis(01 of14)
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In a 2016 interview with Mashable, Viola Davis discussed the pay gap and how a big fight for women of color is first to be paid equally to her white female counterparts. "With me as an actress of color, I have to say to probably contradict myself, that [the pay gap is] not something I think about on a daily basis," she said. "Because the struggle for us as women of color is just to be seen the same as our white female counterparts."

"What are you telling your daughter when she grows up?" Davis added. "'You've got to just understand that you’re a girl. You have a vagina, so that’s not as valuable.'"

Head over to Mashable to read Davis' full interview. (credit:Getty Images)
Sandra Bullock(02 of14)
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In a 2015 interview with Variety, Sandra Bullock discussed why we need more than equal pay to truly level the playing field for women in Hollywood. “It’s a bigger issue than money,” she said. “I know we’re focused on the money part right now. That’s just a byproduct.”

“Once we start shifting how we perceive women and stop thinking about them as ‘less than,’ the pay disparity will take care of itself," Bullock said.

Head here to read the rest of the interview. (credit:Getty Images)
Beyoncé(03 of14)
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In a recent interview with ELLE, Beyoncé made her views on gender inequality and the pay gap very clear. "When we talk about equal rights, there are issues that face women disproportionately," Bey said. "If your son can do it, your daughter should be able to."

The feminist pop star wrote about this same issue in 2014 in a powerful essay for The Shriver Report. "Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change," Bey wrote. "Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect."

Head over to ELLE to read the rest of Beyoncé’s interview. (credit:Getty Images)
Carli Lloyd(04 of14)
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In April, star midfielder of the U.S. Women's National Soccer team Carli Lloyd wrote a powerful op-ed in The New York Times addressing the wage gap that exists between women pro soccer players and their male counterparts. The essay was published just a month after five players from the U.S. national women's team filed a wage-discrimination complaint against U.S. Soccer.

"We can’t right all the world’s wrongs, but we’re totally determined to right the unfairness in our field, not just for ourselves but for the young players coming up behind us and for our soccer sisters around the world," Lloyd wrote. "Simply put, we’re sick of being treated like second-class citizens. It wears on you after a while. And we are done with it."

Head over to The New York Times to read Lloyd's full essay. (credit:Getty Images)
Melissa Harris-Perry(05 of14)
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In a 2013 segment of her former MSNBC show, Melissa Harris-Perry broke down exactly why it's so important that we close the wage gap.

“Seventy-seven is how many cents women working full time currently make for every dollar men are paid. $11,084 is the yearly wage gap created by that pay deficit between full-time working men and women,” Harris-Perry said. “Sixty-four cents is how much African-American women are paid for every dollar men earn, showing that women of color are more impacted by these unequal pay disparities.”

Watch the full segment here. (credit:Getty Images)
Emma Watson(06 of14)
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In a March 2016 interview with Esquire, Emma Watson discussed the gender pay gap and reminded everyone why it's so important to speak up about. "We are not supposed to talk about money, because people will think you’re 'difficult' or a 'diva,'" Watson said.

Head over to Esquire to read Watson's full interview. (credit:Getty Images)
Jennifer Lawrence(07 of14)
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In an October 2015 essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter, Jennifer Lawrence wrote about her experience with pay inequality. She wrote that she didn’t want to be deemed “difficult” or “spoiled” by demanding more money.

"When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks, I didn't get mad at Sony," Lawrence wrote. "I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early."

“I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable! Fuck that,” she wrote.

Read the rest of Lawrence's essay here. (credit:Getty Images)
Nicki Minaj(08 of14)
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In a May 2015 interview with Cosmopolitan, Nicki Minaj urged young women to talk about how much they're paid in order to close the wage gap.

"Women are uncomfortable talking about money. I know it's taboo to discuss it at work," Minaj said. "You have to ask questions. 'What is this person getting?' Do your research. I've always been pretty competitive in terms of my pay."

Head over to Cosmo to read Minaj's full interview. (credit:Getty Images)
Jessica Chastain(09 of14)
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Jessica Chastain spoke out in support of Jennifer Lawrence's essay on the wage gap in a 2015 interview with Variety. "There’s no excuse," Chastain said. "There’s no reason why [Jennifer Lawrence] should be doing a film with other actors and get paid less than her male costars. It's completely unfair."

In an October 2015 interview with The Huffington Post, Chastain added that she's experienced the gender wage gap herself. "Someone wrote an article once that said I made a certain amount of money for ‘The Martian.’... I made less than a quarter of that in reality, so there is a huge wage gap in the industry," she said.

Head over to Variety to read the rest of Chastain's interview. (credit:Getty Images)
Salma Hayek(10 of14)
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At Variety's Power of Women luncheon in October 2015, Salma Hayek gave a riveting speech on gender equality and the importance of closing the wage gap. "[Women] are 66 percent of the work power of the world. However, we only get 10 percent of the income of the world," she said. "This is really, really sad and tragic."

"We are such an economical power, women in the country," she added. "We represent such a strong part of the audience that they cannot ignore us anymore."

Head over to Access Hollywood to read the rest of Hayek's remarks. (credit:Getty Images)
Judy Greer(11 of14)
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In an op-ed for Glamour, Judy Greer called bullshit on the gender pay gap. “In the past few months, I’ve become convinced of one thing: If I were a man, I’d be paid more,” she wrote.

"In Hollywood I can continue to fight for more movies and TV shows -- with bigger budgets -- that value women," Greer wrote. "Women who are more than arm candy. Women who are layered and flawed, just like us. Women who kick ass. And yes, women who get paid for it.”

Head to Glamour to read Greer's full essay. (credit:Getty Images)
Rosario Dawson(12 of14)
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In a November 2015 interview with MTV, Rosario Dawson talked about how the pay gap is different for women of color. "It’s a very complex situation when you think about what are black women making in comparison to white women, what are Latin women making, what are Asian women making in comparison," she said. "And it gets even more convoluted."

"Male, female, young or old, when people aren’t properly being paid for the job, what that does for their children and their access and opportunities… it just builds up," Dawson added. "Generationally we’re impacting people and I hope that that changes."

Head over to MTV to read the rest of Dawson's interview. (credit:Getty Images)
Carey Mulligan(13 of14)
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In a November 2015 interview with Deadline, Carey Mulligan applauded Jennifer Lawrence for speaking up about the wage gap.

"I think it’s a good thing for someone like Jennifer to speak out; it means an awful lot to women," Mulligan said. "...[The discrepancy] is inherently unfair and she has an enormous platform to speak out against it. Men in Hollywood look up to her because she is powerful. She’s using that platform to correct something that isn’t right."

Head over to Deadline to read the entire interview. (credit:Getty Images)
Patricia Arquette(14 of14)
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In her now-iconic acceptance speech after winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2015, Patricia Arquette made a passionate plea to close the pay gap.

Arquette expanded on her speech in a November 2015 interview with The Huffington Post. “Basically what I was saying is I don’t know why women are never a part of the conversation,” she said. “The women’s movement hasn’t moved at all. ... We don’t talk about women at all. They’re the invisible part of our whole nation, so I was appealing to our great activist leaders to help women, to remember us, to lend their hand, and maybe that’s not my place to say.”

Head here to hear more from Arquette's follow-up interview. (credit:Getty Images)
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