The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Sony chief says she was fired
Hacking attack on entertainment giant preceded exit.
NEW YORK — In her first interview since her exit as co-chairman of Sony Pictures, Amy Pascal opened up about her departure and acknowledged it wasn’t voluntary.
Speaking to journalist Tina Brown at the Women in the World conference Wednesday night in San Francisco, Pascal joked, “All the women here are doing incredible things in this world. All I did was get fired.”
After a long reign as the head of Sony Pictures, the studio last week announced Pascal was stepping down and would start a new production venture at Sony. In her new role as producer, she has already inherited several of the studio’s biggest upcoming projects, including Sony’s next Spider-man film, to be made in partnership with Marvel Studios.
“I’m 56,” she said at the sum- mit. “It’s not exactly the time that you want to start all over again. But it’s kind of great and I have to and it’s going to be a new adventure for me.”
Pascal also spoke candidly about the trauma of the hacking attack that preceded her departure. When the extent of the damage was still unraveling and personal information was found to be stolen, Pascal said “everybody was really scared.”
“But nagging in the back of my mind, and I kept calling them, like, ‘They don’t have our emails, right? Tell me they don’t have our emails.’ ‘No, no no,’” recalled Pascal. “Well, then they did. That was a bad moment.”
Pascal came under fire, in particular, for emails with producer Scott Rudin in which the two joked about President Barack Obama’s presumed taste in movies.