Amy Pascal on the Sony Pictures hack: 'Hollywood celebrities are a bottomless pit of need'

When Sony Pictures suffered an unprecedented cyberattack in December 2014, it was its co-chairman Amy Pascal at the centre of the revelations.

Pascal is now 'stepping down', and this week spoke at the Women in the World conference in San Francisco (via Recode) in an interview with journalist Tina Brown, about the events that lead to her firing.

To kick off Pascal said she was fired, despite the official word being that the parting of ways was a mutual decision. "All the women here are doing incredible things in this world — all I did was get fired," she said.

Asked about how she felt when the emails she had sent were being leaked to the public, Pascal said: "I ran this company, and I had to worry about everybody who was really scared... people were really scared. I kept calling [IT] and being like, 'They don't have our emails, tell me they don't have our emails,' but then they did. That was a bad moment. And you know what you write in emails."

"Everybody understood because we all live in this weird thing called Hollywood."

One of the leaked emails that most damaged Pascal's reputation regarded US President Barack Obama and jokes between her and producer Scott Rudin about his supposed taste in movies and his race.

"It was horrible. That was horrible," said Pascal.

Another notable email chain from the leaks regarded Angelina Jolie. In the emails Rudin referred to the actress as a "minimally talented spoiled brat," but Pascal doesn't believe Jolie cares about the insult.

"Everybody understood because we all live in this weird thing called Hollywood. If we all actually were nice, it wouldn't work."

Another story among the leaks related to the payments dished out to the stars of American Hustle, which revealed that female stars Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were paid less than their male counterparts Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper.

"Women shouldn't work for less money. They should know what they're worth."

"I've paid [Jennifer Lawrence] a lot more money since then, I promise you," Pascal said. "Here's the problem: I run a business. People want to work for less money, I pay them less money... Women shouldn't work for less money. They should know what they're worth. Women shouldn't take less."

Finally, Pascal was asked about what she learned from the experience, saying: "You should always say exactly what you think directly to people all the time," but added that it's hard with celebrities because they are "bottomless pits of need."