Controversial Jennifer Lawrence Moments That Sparked Fan Backlash

Jennifer Lawrence became a worldwide star when she was cast as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" franchise, and even more than 10 years later, we still love a Katniss braid. The world fell in love with Lawrence, at first. Lawrence had funny interactions with other A-list stars, and her fashion game has landed her on numerous best dressed lists. But it wasn't all smooth sailing for the actress. A big part of her appeal was how she seemed quirky and relatable, but that ended up wearing thin, with some people thinking that it was an act. And then films like "Mother!" and "Dark Phoenix" weren't well-received by audiences, and Lawrence stepped out of the spotlight in 2019, taking a break from acting for two years.

She spoke about that time of her life to Vanity Fair in 2021: "I just think everybody had gotten sick of me. I'd gotten sick of me. It had just gotten to a point where I couldn't do anything right." Then in 2025, Lawrence spoke with The New Yorker about her ups and downs in Hollywood, including the fact that she knew some people found her irritating. She said: "So hyper. So embarrassing. ... I look at those interviews, and that person is annoying. I get why seeing that person everywhere would be annoying." Unfortunately, she's right, as there's plenty of moments where Lawrence rubbed the public the wrong way.

In 2016, Jennifer Lawrence was on "The Graham Norton Show," and she was telling a story about when she was filming in Hawaii for "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" back in 2012. She talked about how there were "sacred rocks" there, and went on to say: "you're not supposed to sit on them because you're not supposed to expose your genitalia to them. I, however, was in a wetsuit for this whole shoot so — oh my God, they were so good for butt-itching."

Clearly she thought it was a cute, funny anecdote. She went on to note that she ended up dislodging a rock and it nearly hit someone; the punchline of the story, as it were, was that it didn't happen because of a curse from the island, it was because of her. People weren't having it with Lawrence's story. One person on X (formerly known as Twitter) said sarcastically: "COOL story, bro! Disrespecting ancestors, their heritage and beliefs is SOOOO funny!" One YouTube, someone commented, "As someone who lives and has been raised in Hawaii I am so disgusted and disappointed in her nonchalant attitude to doing something so disrespectful and callous."

Lawrence clearly saw the online outcry, and she ended up publicly apologizing, but that wasn't enough for some. That one story seems to have permanently lost her some fans.

In a conversation with Viola Davis for Variety's "Actors on Actors" series in 2022, Jennifer Lawrence spoke about her time as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games." She got people riled up as she and Davis talked about casting in Hollywood. Here's the quote in question: "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."

Some people gave her some grace over what may have simply been clumsy phrasing, but there were plenty who got irritated that Lawrence had said there hadn't been previous female leads in action movie. People shared photos of women like Sigourney Weaver in "Alien," and Linda Hamilton in "Terminator" as just a couple of examples to counter Lawrence's claim. And it's been something that people still remember years later.

Lawrence later clarified her comments to The Hollywood Reporter. "I know that I am not the only woman who has ever led an action film. What I meant to emphasize was how good it feels. ... But it was my blunder and it came out wrong." Again, it doesn't seem as though her clarification got the same amount of traction as the original comments, and it could be awhile before she lives that one down.

Jennifer Lawrence starred opposite Robert Pattinson in the 2025 movie "Die My Love," and she spoke about the experience on the "Las Culturistas" podcast. She plays a new mother with Pattinson as her partner, and on the podcast, she was asked if there was an intimacy coordinator on set. She said, "We did not have one, or maybe we did ... I felt really safe with him; he's, like, not pervy." She explained that if it had seemed like Pattinson thought she liked him, she would have wanted a coordinator, since past experience taught her that things can get problematic on set.

As a quick primer, Amy Northrup, a New York City-based intimacy coordinator for film and television, explained the job to CBS News as helping make actors and those on set feel comfortable for "anything asking people to put their bodies in a hyper-exposed, vulnerable state." It sounds like Lawrence was describing healthy interactions with Pattinson on set; however, there were those who thought her comments undermined other women on other movie projects.

One person posted on X: "This messaging is problematic because she's saying you only need an IC if the guy is pervy. So in her next film if there's an IC we're now gonna assume it's because the male co-star was a perv. This adds stigma to the use of an IC." Another said, "This isn't about you, Jen. It's about making safe work conditions the norm when it comes to intimacy scenes."

Despite Jennifer Lawrence acknowledging in 2025 that some of her past interviews didn't perhaps show her in the best light, she's still managing to put her foot in her mouth. In an interview with V Magazine, she talked about the anxiety that she had about working on a movie and then seeing what people have to say about it once it opened. She relayed a conversation she had with her husband where he complimented a film, to which she replied, "I know, but that doesn't matter. People might not get it." A relatable moment of workplace worries? Not for everyone.

Some people on X weren't impressed with Lawrence's take. One person posted: "People experience thanklessness every day. For a hell of a lot less money. Get over it." Others think that it showed that Lawrence couldn't take criticism. "To just say 'they don't get it' is deeply condescending and dismissive. People having opinions you don't like or pointing out things about your movie that don't work shouldn't be met with 'you didn't get it,'" one person said on X.

Is it an example of people just not being able to empathize with Lawrence? Or it could be that no matter what perspective she shares, her haters aren't going to stand for it.