Jennifer Lawrence has a theory as to why women don’t come forward when they experience harassment — and it stems from personal experience.
The Oscar-winning actress joined Allison Janney, Mary J. Blige, Jessica Chastain, Emma Stone and Saoirse Ronan for a candid discussion about harassment in Hollywood for The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Actress Roundtable issue.
During the conversation, the 27-year-old recalled an instance in which a producer called her behavior “unruly” after she stood up for herself on set.
“Basically my job was threatened because the director said something fucked up to me and I said, ‘That’s sick, you can’t talk to me like that,’” Lawrence said. “And then I was punished, and I got afraid that I wasn’t going to be hired again.”
She continued:
“I was called difficult and a nightmare. I think a lot of people aren’t coming forward because they’re afraid they’re not going to work again. You need to be able to say, ‘This is wrong’ and have somebody do something about it instead of saying, ‘Oh, it’s wrong? Well, you’re fired.’”
Lawrence and her fellow actresses spoke at length about gender inequality, harassment and sexual misconduct in the film industry sparked by recent headlines about Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., Brett Ratner and others.
“The big misconception, though, is that this is just in the entertainment industry,” Lawrence said. “That doesn’t mean that there’s less sexual abuse going on anywhere else in the world, in any other place of work. But fortunately, we’re starting the conversation now.”