Jennifer Lawrence discussed the lack of emphasis on female-directed movies while speaking with some of the best actors of 2022. Lawrence shot to stardom after being cast as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games series. Her breakthrough performance in 2010’s Winter’s Bone won her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She swiftly rose to fame as one of the most in-demand actors, and in 2013 she was honored with an Oscar for her work in Silver Linings Playbook. Before taking a break from acting, Lawrence featured in movies including American Hustle, Joy, and Passengers. She later made a comeback in last year’s Don’t Look Up. Lawrence, who has never shied away from speaking out in support of women in the industry, is now sharing her thoughts on male vs female-led movies.
Jennifer Lawrence praises female directors at The Hollywood Reporter’s annual actress roundtable while highlighting the absence of toxic behavior on female-led sets. Joined by some of the year’s biggest stars, such as Michelle Yeoh from Everything Everywhere All At Once and Clarie Foy from The Crown, Lawrence discusses the differences between her experiences working on films directed by men and those run by women, arguing that the environments on female-directed sets are more collaborative and progressive. She even calls explicitly out Bryan Singer as a director, citing his “hissy fits” on set and bringing up the irony of calling women “emotional.” Below, you can read what Lawrence had to say regarding women directors:
“It did always just make us laugh about how we ended up with, ‘Women shouldn’t be in roles like this because we’re so emotional, I mean, I’ve worked with Bryan Singer. I’ve seen emotional men. I’ve seen the biggest hissy fits thrown on set.
“It was making me laugh when we were talking about the hours and stuff because it was just so interesting to be on a female-led movie. My producing partner and I were the lead producers. We had a female director [Lila Neugebauer]. The schedule made sense. There were no huge fights. If an actor had a personal thing and wanted to leave early, instead of going, ‘Oh! Well, we’d all love to leave early!’ we’d put our heads together and go, ‘OK. How can we figure this out?’ We disagreed, and we listened to each other. Sometimes I was wrong and would learn that I was wrong, and sometimes I was right. It was incredible to not be around toxic masculinity. To get a little break from it.
“[Neugebauer’s] my third female director, and they are the calmest, best decision-makers I’ve ever worked with. I absolutely love working with female directors.”
History of Bryan Singer and Jennifer Lawrence
Lawrence starred in three X-Men films, including X-Men: First Class, Days of Future Past, and Apocalypse, all of which were directed by Bryan Singer. The singer was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody in 2019 after allegations of sexual abuse against him against men and minors who were underage. A number of performers have accused Singer of toxic conduct on set and allege that working with him is particularly challenging. Now that Lawrence has added her to the roster of celebrities endorsing his violent demeanor, which also includes Halle Berry, Sophie Turner, and Rami Malek from Bohemian Rhapsody and the X-Men.