Jennifer Lawrence responds to backlash after saying she was first female action lead

Jennifer Lawrence admits she messed up after suggesting in a recent interview that she was the first female star to play the lead role in an action movie.

For those that missed all the fun last week, Lawrence sat down with legend Viola Davis for Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ interview series. During the interview, Lawrence claimed that she was the first woman to be cast as an action movie lead.

“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," she said.

If your brain turned to mush reading that, you're not alone. Lawrence was swiftly and quite rightly disavowed of the notion she was the first female action lead on Twitter. Users were quick to point out decades of predecessors, including Linda Hamilton, Sigourney Weaver, Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Uma Thurman, and many more.

While it's definitely important not to lose the sight of the fact there aren't anywhere near enough female action leads when compared to male stars, forgetting the trailblazers helps no one.

Lawrence has now addressed her comments and attempted to offer some clarification to The Hollywood Reporter.

"That’s certainly not what I meant to say at all. I know that I am not the only woman who has ever led an action film," she explained.

"What I meant to emphasise was how good it feels. And I meant that with Viola [Davis] — to blow past these old myths that you hear about… about the chatter that you would hear around that kind of thing. But it was my blunder and it came out wrong. I had nerves talking to a living legend."