Jennifer Lawrence Recalls The 'Humiliating' Nude Line-Up She Was Once Forced To Do
There was a time when Jennifer Lawrence's candor about the "shit actresses have to go through" in Hollywood was refreshing; now it's vital.
Lawrence recalled a particularly "humiliating" casting experience at ELLE's Women in Hollywood event in Los Angeles on Monday night. During the early aughts of her career — before she found international fame in The Hunger Games — Lawrence was told by a producer to lose 15 pounds in two weeks, something that no heath professional would ever advise. "Super-easy," Lawrence joked at the podium, before adding that she was told another young actress had previously been fired from the role for not losing the weight fast enough.
During a separate instance, she was asked by female producer to do a "nude line-up" with five other actresses, all of whom were thinner than her. After the "degrading" experience, in which Lawrence said only tape covered their private bits, the same producer then told Lawrence to use the photos as "inspiration" for her diet.
"I asked to speak to a producer about the unrealistic diet regime, and he responded by telling me he didn't know why everyone thought I was so fat; he thought I was perfectly fuck-able," she recalled. Like many vulnerable young actors just starting out in Hollywood, Lawrence felt trapped. If she spoke out, she risked garnering an unfavorable reputation in the industry.
"I let myself be treated a certain way because I felt like I had to for my career," she added. "I was young and walking that fine line of sticking up for myself without being called 'difficult.'"
More than two billion dollars at the box office and an Oscar later, and Lawrence now has the power to say "no." (Though, as J-Law so eloquently said, everyone should be entitled to the power to say "no.")And, yes, she still has the same disdain for the d-word, once telling Harper's Bazaar, "If anybody even tries to whisper the word 'diet,' I'm like, 'You can go fuck yourself.'"