(160512) -- CANNES, May 12, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Director Jodie Foster poses during a photocall for the film "Money Monster" during the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 12, 2016. (Xinhua/Jin Yu)
Los Angeles, May 13 (PTI) "Money Monster" director Jodie Foster has commented on the gender wage gap in Hollywood, saying it's a valid issue.
"In terms of pay, it's hard for me to get interested in millionaires worried about who gets paid more," Foster said, explaining that the market effectively dictates what an actor or actress will make on a project and that the main factor for studios as they negotiate pay is risk.
"I'm just so grateful to be an actor, and I know lots of actors feel that way, that it's hard for us to complain because we're artists, and unfortunately we're artists in a marketplace, and the marketplace pays what the marketplace demands, so we need to change the marketplace."
The issue of equal pay in the film industry exploded last summer when Jennifer Lawrence wrote a well-publicised essay on the matter in Lena Dunham's "Lenny" newsletter. Since then, many female stars including Meryl Streep, Emma Watson and Reese Witherspoon have spoken out on the matter, said the Hollywood Reporter.
"These are conversations that we need to have in our culture," Foster said.
"We need to have conversations about diversity all over the place, and inequality. Especially now, when the class inequality and financial inequality is larger than ever, and it really is the problem of our future. Its something that we all need to look at and think about how to solve.
