Entertainment

Jennifer Lawrence was ‘afraid’ to be sexy on-screen after nude photo hack

The star also spoke to Oprah Winfrey about her relationship with Harvey Weinstein.
The star also spoke to Oprah Winfrey about her relationship with Harvey Weinstein. The star also spoke to Oprah Winfrey about her relationship with Harvey Weinstein.

Jennifer Lawrence has said she has been afraid of doing anything “sexy or sexual” in her career after her nude photographs were hacked in 2014.

However, the Oscar-winning actress has said she feels like she is “taking something back” by embarking on her role in the film Red Sparrow, which sees her play a spy who uses her body as a weapon.

Lawrence told Oprah Winfrey, in an interview for The Hollywood Reporter, that she chose her role in the thriller because of the “chemistry” she had with it, and said it was “like meeting a boyfriend”.

Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence (Ian West/PA Archive/PA Images)
Jennifer Lawrence (Ian West/PA)

She said: “Red Sparrow was sexual, and I haven’t done anything sexy or sexual. I’ve been afraid of that since 2014, when I got my pictures hacked.

“I just thought, ‘I’ll never do that again. I’ll never share that part of myself ever since it got shared against my will’.”

Lawrence added: “And then when I said yes to Red Sparrow, I felt I was taking something back.”

Of the hack, which saw nude images of herself and other celebrities distributed widely online, Lawrence said she would have preferred to have been robbed.

“I would much prefer my whole house to have been invaded,” she said.

“That’s what’s so scary about electronic (things). I have such fear with my phone and my computer and electronics.

“It’s taking somebody’s intellectual property but also my body.

“It was violating on a sexual level.”

Lawrence spoke of her feelings over the Harvey Weinstein sexual allegations scandal, and said that while she has known the producer since she was 20, she did not have such an experience with him and that he was “paternal” towards her.

She said: “Just speaking for myself, I had known him since I was 20, and he had only ever been nice to me – except for the moments that he wasn’t, and then I called him an asshole, and we moved on.

“He was paternal to me. So I needed a moment to process everything because I thought I knew this guy, and then he’s being accused of rape.

“We all knew he was a dog, we knew that he was a tough guy, a brute, a tough guy to negotiate with.”

Lawrence praised all the women who have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against a number of men in the industry, but said that all of the stories are as “horrifying” as each other.

She said she hopes to see “social change” and that there needs to be equality between men and women for that to happen.

Lawrence asked: “As long as there is one group of humans that is overruling another one, there’s going to be abuse, (and) why would we be thought of as equals?”

Weinstein is currently under investigation for alleged sexual assault in four cities, and he has apologised for his behaviour with women but has denied having non-consensual sex.