Jennifer Lawrence Addresses Controversial Comment About Female-Led Action Films
Jennifer Lawrence has responded to the backlash from her comment last week that “nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie” before her role as Katniss Everdeen in the “Hunger Games” — and told The Hollywood Reporter she misspoke.
“That’s certainly not what I meant to say at all,” Lawrence said Thursday. “I know that I am not the only woman who has ever led an action film. What I meant to emphasize was how good it feels. And I meant that with Viola — to blow past these old myths that you hear about.”
Lawrence said she was just addressing “the chatter that you would hear” around female-led action movies being given short shrift when she made her faux pas during Variety’s “Actors on Actors” interview with Viola Davis, but that it was her “blunder” and “came out wrong.”
In the Variety interview, Lawrence recalled being told that “girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead.” The newfound mom was subsequently slammed online despite merely trying to compliment Davis on her lead in “The Woman King.”
“I had nerves talking to a living legend,” Lawrence told The Hollywood Reporter.
The “Don’t Look Up” actor, who welcomed her first child with Cooke Maroney earlier this year, was quickly reminded by Twitter users of women-led, high-octane action films like “The Terminator,” “Aliens” and “Kill Bill.”
“One time I was quoted saying that Donald Trump was responsible for hurricanes,” Lawrence told The Hollywood Reporter. “I felt that one was ridiculous, that it was so stupid I didn’t need to comment. But this one, I was like, ‘I think I want to clarify.’”
Lawrence certainly provided strong female representation in the “Hunger Games” franchise for a new generation. The films reportedly grossed nearly $3 billion and made her an A-lister. As for Davis, the Black actor had an additional prejudice aside from gender to overcome.
“‘When have I ever seen anything like ‘The Woman King?’” Davis recalled thinking during their interview. “Not just with me in it, but with anyone who looks like me in it? What studio is going to put money behind it? How are they going to be convinced that Black women can lead a global box office?”
“The Woman King” hit theaters in September — and conquered the domestic box office.
