UPDATE, Dec. 9: Jennifer Lawrence apologized on Friday via a post on her Facebook page:
PREVIOUSLY: Jennifer Lawrence recently appeared on “The Graham Norton Show” and retold a story about filming “The Hunger Games” in Hawaii that was not only tone-deaf, but culturally insensitive, according to many speaking out on social media.
The actress said that she sat on culturally sacred rocks after the crew warned her not to, as “you’re not supposed to expose your genitalia to them.” JLaw did not listen to their orders and explained how she rubbed her butt on them to relieve an itch, pulling one of the rocks loose, which almost killed a sound person when it rolled down the mountain.
“It was a huge dramatic deal,” Lawrence said. “And all the Hawaiians were like, ‘Oh my God, it’s the curse!’ And I’m in the corner, going, ‘I’m your curse. I wedged it loose with my ass.’”
Many outlets that reported on the appearance, HuffPost included, overlooked that her behavior, or at least her description of it, seemed insensitive to local customs. As BuzzFeed pointed out, “In ancient Hawaii people believed certain stones were sacred for many reasons and often served as a physical reminders of the spiritual world.”
Though Lawrence has told this story before in 2013 ― and admitted she didn’t know the rocks were sacred when she sat on them ― she could’ve used her platform on Norton’s show to apologize for her mistake rather than joke about the story.
Naturally, social media quickly welcomed people to the “Jennifer Lawrence is canceled” party and pointed out all the ways that the actress, and her blasé attitude, were extraordinarily disrespectful to the people of Hawaii.
Others called out Chris Pratt for not saying anything while Lawrence was telling her story:
“Blech. Jennifer Lawrence should apologize and needs to never repeat this story ever again,” author and educator Hind Makki wrote in a Facebook post. “And while I appreciate Chris Pratt being unamused by her racism, he also remained silent. You can’t be a White Ally with your face, friends. She’s his coworker and seems to be friendly with him. All he had to do was say, ‘dude, not cool. This is pretty disrespectful.’”
Before You Go
