Jennifer Lawrence claims she was the first woman to lead an action movie, is swiftly rebuked

Jennifer Lawrence skyrocketed to fame when she was cast as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. That’s certainly the first time she appeared on my radar. I’m not ashamed to say I’m one of those ‘read the book first’ people. In fact, I remember the very first teaser trailer for The Hunger Games vividly.

The Hunger Games franchise didn’t just end up impressing fans. It took over the world for a couple of years - and is set to return in 2023 with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. It was certainly a titan of the ‘young adult’ era, taking over from Twilight. As successful as The Hunger Games was though, fans don’t agree with one recent claim made by Lawrence.

Lawrence currently stars in Causeway. Check out the trailer below.

Lawrence recently sat down with Viola Davis for Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ interview series where Lawrence claimed that she was the first woman to be cast as an action movie lead. She 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 – because we were told girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead.”

As fans have pointed out, that’s not exactly true. Radio host Dana Loesch tweeted, “Linda Hamilton, HELLO. Sigourney Weaver? Angelina Jolie? Halle Berry? Uma Thurman and the ladies of Kill Bill? Death Proof cast?” It’s true. Lawrence certainly isn’t the first female action star, but I think she’s getting at a truth beyond the obvious blunder.

Lawrence was undeniably the first female action star for a certain generation of cinema-goers, which is something she perhaps should’ve pointed out instead. Female-led action films existed before The Hunger Games but for those around the same age as me, you probably share my experience that Katniss was the first female action lead you saw on the big screen. A generational icon, but one that’s part of a much larger legacy.