May the odds be ever in Jennifer Lawrence’s favor for the backlash she’s receiving for this comment.
During a conversation for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series with Viola Davis released Wednesday, the 32-year-old “Hunger Games” star declared herself as the first woman to lead an action movie.
“I remember when I was doing ‘Hunger Games,’ nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie because it wouldn’t work — because we were told girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead,” she said of her role as Katniss Everdeen in the 2012 film adaptation based on the popular book series.
“And it just makes me so happy every single time I see a movie come out that just blows through every one of those beliefs and proves that it is just a lie to keep certain people out of the movies,” Lawrence said, tying “Hunger Games” to Davis’ recent movie, “The Woman King.” “To keep certain people in the same positions that they’ve always been in.”
The film franchise made her a household name as she also starred in all four of the “Hunger Games” movies.
Fans immediately took to Twitter to call Lawrence’s bluff since many actresses have been cast as leads in action films long before Lawrence’s 2012 movie.
Fans pointed out actresses such as Sigourney Weaver, who played Ellen Ripley in the “Alien” franchise starting in 1979; Milla Jovovich as Alice in the “Resident Evil” movies starting in 2002; and Angelina Jolie in the 2001 and 2003 “Tomb Raider” movies.
“Jennifer Lawrence proclaiming she was the first woman to ever be the lead in an action movie…Clearly, she never saw Sigourney Weaver’s Alien franchise,” journalist David Leavitt tweeted, which, in turn, resulted in Variety unfollowing him.
The outlet reportedly even deleted a tweet with Lawrence’s quote amid the growing backlash as the actress became a trending topic on the platform Wednesday afternoon.
“Sure glad nobody ever told that to Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton or Uma Thurman. They’d be pretty upset,” another user added, in reference to Hamilton’s “Terminator” films and Thurman’s “Kill Bill” franchise.
“Oh Jennifer, I love you like crazy, but did you never see any movies at all before you were hired for Hunger Games? I know there are some actors who never go to movies (Bob Hoskins was one, he never watched movies) but I would have thought you would have heard of, say, Kill Bill,” another asked.
“Why would she say this in front of Viola?! Involving her in her mess,” another demanded answers.
Davis did not correct Lawrence’s snafu, which happened pretty early into the pair’s nearly 45-minute-long discussion.
Later in the interview, the “X-Men” actress admitted, “The biggest hindrance to my craft has been press, doing interviews. I’m always very self-conscious of my intellect because I didn’t finish school. I dropped out of middle school.”
Lawrence and Davis also discussed motherhood and the industry’s ideal body weight in the lengthy interview.
