When Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence proclaimed she was the first female lead in any action movie, many people disagreed.
Lawrence—who played the protagonist Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games movies based on the eponymous dystopian novels written by Suzanne Collins—received backlash for her grand statement.
She told fellow actress Viola Davis on Variety’s Actors on Actors series on Wednesday her role in the 2012 film adaptation of Hunger Games was significant due to her inaccurate fact that prompted social media users to say, "I don't think so."
The outspoken feminist and advocate for reproductive rights 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."
Here is a snippet of the discussion.
Lawrence continued, referencing Davis' recent female empowerment historical epic The Woman King.
"And it just makes me so happy every single time I see a movie come out that just blows through every one of those beliefs and proves that it is just a lie to keep certain people out of the movies."
People online who took issue with Lawrence's bold claim set the record straight by referencing actors who came before her who paved the way for her success in movies like Hunger Games.
Among the examples mentioned were Sigourney Weaver who played Ellen Ripley in 1979's Alien, Milla Jovovich as Alice in the Resident Evil films from 2002 and Angelina Jolie in the 2001 and 2003 Tomb Raider movies.
It didn't take hardcore cinephiles to discredit Lawrence's assertion she was the first female lead to star in an action movie.
General moviegoers knew enough about cinema history to fact-check her with more examples.
Some offered insight as to why female-led action movies haven't been recognized as an achievement in Hollywood.
And some users tried to walk back Lawrence's comment.
And regarding the notion men and boys can't identify with a female lead, Twitter had this to say.
Davis did not respond to Lawrence's claim in their 45-minute-long discussion.
