Chris Rock on Jennifer Lawrence's pay gap essay

Chris Rock says that even though Jennifer Lawrence might not get paid as well as her male colleagues, she'd be even worse off if she were black.

The comedian and filmmaker said in a New Yorker profile of "SNL" actress Leslie Jones that it's important to pay attention to the wage gap between black actors and white actors.

"Black women have the hardest gig in show business," said Rock. "You hear Jennifer Lawrence complaining about getting paid less because she's a woman - if she was black, she'd really have something to complain about."

Rock's comment was in response to an essay Lawrence wrote for Lena Dunham's Lenny newsletter, titled, "Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co‑Stars?"

In the essay, the "Hunger Games" star wrote that she was upset when she learned she made less money than her male co-stars in "American Hustle" after the Sony hack.

"When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with d***s, I didn't get mad at Sony," she wrote. "I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early. I didn't want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don't need."

Lawrence name-checked her coworkers from "American Hustle" -- Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper -- for negotiating and wrote that they were grabbing great deals for themselves while she was "busy worrying about coming across as a brat."

Rock met Jones in the 1980s when they were both touring, doing standup, and reconnected with her in 2012 after seeing her perform again. Later, he helped her get a job as a writer for "Saturday Night Live." Last year, Jones became an "SNL" cast member. She will be one of the four actresses leading the "Ghostbusters" reboot.