Jennifer Lawrence has made it no secret that Hollywood bigwigs gave her a hard time for her weight early in her career, and now, she’s shedding more light on how body-shaming plays out behind the scenes. According to Vulture, at a recent Comic-Con panel Lawrence was asked if, in light of her “Hunger Games” character, there would be better roles for women in Hollywood’s future. Lawrence expressed fears of putting her foot in her mouth, but decided to get real anyway:
“I would hope that there are more opportunities for women, but sometimes it’s hard. I was just having a conversation with somebody about the struggles of weight in the industry, because they know that it’s something I talk nonstop about.”
Lawrence said the person observed that most of Hollywood’s A-listers look fairly healthy rather than underweight.
“…I said, ‘Yeah, because once you get to a certain place [in your career], people will hire you and they want you to be in their movie, so they don’t care.’ It’s more about the struggle for the actors and actresses who haven’t made it to a certain place…I’m not really in a place where I can complain or speak to not getting enough roles, because I’m very lucky to have a lot of opportunities.”
Lawrence suggested that young men and women just starting out in the film industry are the ones most susceptible to body-shaming and mistreatment for their size — as if the financial and emotional insecurity that comes from being a struggling performer isn’t enough to deal with already. That type of mistreatment trickles down to other vulnerable young people, like preteen girls who take Hollywood’s message to heart and turn to dangerous habits to keep up. Nobody deserves to feel that their body isn’t good enough, no matter what walk of life they’re in.
This is the kind of disturbing reality check that nobody wants to hear, but it’s comforting to see a star as big as Lawrence advocating for those who don’t yet have a voice in the industry. She’s using her platform to keep this conversation going, no matter how uncomfortable it makes others, and moves like that are ever-so-slowly making the world a better place to be a woman. J.Law, you rock.
