Jennifer Lawrence slammed for claiming to be the first-ever female action lead in ‘Hunger Games’

Jennifer Lawrence is facing criticism for saying she was the first lead woman in an action movie while speaking about sexism in Hollywood.

The Hunger Games actress shot to fame from the action franchise alongside Josh Peterson and Liam Hemsworth, and has since starred in other action movies including X-Men and Red Sparrow.

Jennifer has now claimed in an interview that ‘nobody’ had put a female as the front-runner in an action film before her starring role as Katniss Everdeen, but fans have been quick to call the actress’s bluff.

Fans have pointed out that there have been many leading ladies long before Jennifer’s 2012 movie with Angelina Jolie, Sigourney Weaver, Demi Moore and Uma Thurman all being highlighted for their action roles.

Jennifer’s blunder comes as she joined fellow Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis in talking to Variety for the magazine’s ‘Actors on Actors’ feature about upcoming passion projects ‘The Woman King’ and ‘The Causeway’.

Before the controversial remark, Jennifer had been out of the spotlight for a short while after having her first baby called Cy in February with her art gallery husband Cooke Maroney.

Viola and Jennifer spoke about the industry that ‘believes male actors are a more valuable commodity’ and putting women at the forefront of movies, in all genres.

The Don't Look Up actress told Variety: “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 could both identify with a boy lead, but boys could never identify with a female lead.

“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 movies.”

According to Women and Hollywood, 2021 statistics showed that female protagonists were most likely to appear in drama movies at 36% while action leads only fell in at 14%.

Therefore, while fans have noted that Jennifer and Viola’s discussion is an important issue to tackle, they took to social media to highlight previous female action movie stars.

Someone said: “What Jennifer Lawrence said about being the first female action lead was incorrect. But the point she was making was absolutely spot on.”

While another tweeted: “Jennifer Lawrence believes that she was the first female lead in an action movie. Sigourney Weaver was kicking ass in Alien 11 years before JLaw was born. Also see Pam Grier, Linda Hamilton, Angelina Jolie, Uma Therman and so many more examples.”

Amid the growing backlash, Variety reportedly deleted a Tweet containing Jennifer’s quote on Wednesday 7 December.