Jennifer Lawrence Says She Was Punished for Calling Out a Director

"I was called difficult and a nightmare."

By Mehera Bonner

Nov 16, 2017

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Jennifer Lawrence has long been an advocate for women in Hollywood. In fact, her salary discrepancy essay was one of the first conversation starters about the wage gap. And in the wake of sexual harassment and assault allegations against countless people in the industry, she's given a glimpse at just how poorly women can be treated by men in film.

While talking about sexual harassment during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable, Lawrence said the following:

"Sometimes—I've had this happen: I finally made the decision to stand up for myself, and then I went to go to the bathroom at work and one of the producers stopped me and was like, 'You know, we can hear you on the microphone, you've been really unruly.' Which was not true, but basically my job was threatened because the director said something fucked up to me and I said, 'That’s sick, you can’t talk to me like that.' And then I was punished, and I got afraid that I wasn’t going to be hired again."

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Lawrence added that she was unfairly labeled as a "nightmare," and the incident made her realize that women are afraid to speak out because of potential repercussions against their careers.

"I was called difficult and a nightmare. I think a lot of people aren’t coming forward because they're afraid they're not going to work again," she said. "You need to be able to say, 'This is wrong' and have somebody do something about it instead of saying, 'Oh, it’s wrong? Well, you’re fired.'"

Reminder: Women have every right to speak up for themselves, in every industry.