'It came out wrong': Jennifer Lawrence clarifies remark about first female-led action hero following backlash
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jennifer Lawrence, who faced massive backlash over claims of being the first female to lead an action movie, has released a clarification. The 32-year-old actress said that "it came out wrong" when she claimed that "nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie". Lawrence played the lead role of Katniss Everdeen in the popular dystopian film 'The Hunger Games' (2012).
“That’s certainly not what I meant to say at all,” Lawrence explained speaking with The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, December 8, “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.” She added, “And I meant that with Viola [Davis]— to blow past these old myths that you hear about … about the chatter that you would hear around that kind of thing. But it was my blunder and it came out wrong. I had nerves talking to a living legend.”
READ MORE
The Oscar winner actress in a video interview with Viola Davis as part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series, said, “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, we were told. Girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead.” Davis could not contest the assertion as the actress continued, to say that it makes her 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. To keep certain people in the same positions that they’ve always been in," as reported by Conservative News Daily.
Meanwhile, in the Variety series, Davis had also expressed her delight about her role in the Black female-dominated ensemble drama 'The Woman King' from Sony, which she also produced. “When have I ever seen anything like The Woman King?” Davis recalled thinking during the project’s development. “Not just with me in it, but with anyone who looks like me in it?” Davis continued: “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?”
Responding to Davis' skepticism that a film like 'The Woman King' could ever be made, Lawrence stated, "I wanna circle back to you being the lead of The Woman King. And we’re at, I think it’s 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes? Sixty-six million domestic. I mean, it is just … It couldn’t have been more wrong. … It just makes me so happy every single time I see a movie come out that just blows through every single one of those beliefs and proves that it is just a lie to keep certain people out of the movies, to keep certain people in the same positions that they’ve always been in. It’s just amazing to watch it happen and watch you at the helm.”
Lawrence told THR about how quotes can be misunderstood or taken out of context by the media. “One time I was quoted saying that Donald Trump was responsible for hurricanes. 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.'”