Amy Pascal, a producer on this weekend’s box-office smash “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” opened up to the New York Times about enduring the turbulent end to her Sony tenure.
Pascal told the publication in an interview published Saturday that she is now “at peace” with her new path. The former studio exec famously stepped down as Sony’s co-chairman in 2015 after suffering the embarrassment of the studio’s email hacking in late 2014.
“It has been a challenge to be patient and allow myself to learn, especially at this ripe age,” said Pascal, who now produces film for Sony with her company Pascal Pictures. “There’s some discomfort in that. Starting over again means you have to shut up and listen.”
She said she will “always carry what happened with me,” but she added, “I forgave people, as I hope people forgave me. … A lot of people did stand by me, including people who didn’t have to.”
Pascal’s emails to colleagues were leaked during the hack, and some of her threads were scrutinized for harsh words about others in the industry. One email exchange featured Pascal and Scott Rudin joking about Obama’s film tastes; both Pascal and Rudin later apologized.
She told the Times that she “went right back to emailing all the time,” but that she tries “I try not to say stupid things anymore. But what was I going to do? Write letters? Only talk on the phone, which I hate?”
Pascal, who was a producer on 2016’s “Ghostbusters,” along with working on such upcoming projects as the Aaron Sorkin-directed drama “Molly’s Game,” said she was able to learn a lot while co-producing “Homecoming” with Marvel’s Kevin Feige.
“Marvel is unique because it specializes,” she said. “When you’re running a big studio, you’re pulled in a thousand different directions, and you sometimes forget that the most important thing is the movie. I don’t like saying that, but it’s the truth.”
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Pascal points out that she “loved” her Sony job: “I never wanted to let it go. I loved it so much, to be honest, that I didn’t allow myself to believe that the movie business had moved on. But it had moved.” She then added with a smile, “And now, so have I.”