Jennifer Lawrence has shared that she is becoming less interested in talking about politics, and will no longer be criticising Donald Trump.
The actor opened up about her shift in mindset during a new appearance on The New York Times’ The Interview podcast, where she also promoted her new film Die My Love.
Best recognised for films including The Hunger Games, Silver Linings: Playbook, and No Hard Feelings, the Oscar-winner was outspoken in her criticism of Donald Trump during his first time in office as US President.
As well as hitting out against him in various interviews, she also wrote an op-ed after his initial election victory, and claimed that his win meant that “the only people that feel safe [in America], that their rights are recognised and respected, are white men.”
During the latest interview, the actor was asked about her thoughts on the president now he is back in office for the second time – to which she responded that she was reluctant to be as outspoken as she once was.
“I don’t really know if I should. The first Trump administration was so wild and just how can we let this stand? I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. But as we’ve learned, election after election, celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for,” she said.
“So then what am I doing? I’m just sharing my opinion on something that’s going to add fuel to a fire that’s ripping the country apart. We are so divided.”
Lawrence also shared that she was thinking twice before getting too involved in politics as she didn’t want to alienate people from going to see her films and potentially enjoying something “because they don’t like my political opinions”.
“I want to protect my craft so that you can still get lost in what I’m doing. And if I can’t say something that’s going to speak to some kind of peace or lowering the temperature or some sort of solution, I don’t want to be a part of the problem,” she told the host.
“I don’t want to make the problem worse… You watch these actors’ faces who have had incredible careers and made incredible contributions and then one half of the internet doesn’t want to see their face anymore. I get so upset for those people and it feels so wrong.”
While she said that she was no longer going to be as vocal about her political stance as before, she said that she hopes people will be able to recognise her outlook based on the films she is pursuing.
“I try to express my politics through my work. A lot of movies coming out from my production company are expressions of the political landscape and that’s how I feel like I can be helpful,” she concluded.
Projects Lawrence has taken part in previously that have political tones include the abortion documentary Zurawski v Texas, and Bread And Roses, which follows the narrative of three women in Afghanistan amid the impact of the 2021 Taliban offensive (via Variety).
While she has now said that she will be holding back before getting involved in public, political discussions, in September, the actor did speak out to publicly condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, remarking: “What’s happening is no less than a genocide.”
This discussion on The Interview isn’t the first time that Lawrence has taken a more reflective outlook during the press tour for Die My Love. In a new profile by The New Yorker, the actor also confessed to finding interviews stressful, and said that she thinks her persona in interviews at the height of her fame was “annoying”.
When looking back on the backlash against her, the star said: “I felt—I didn’t feel, I was, I think—rejected not for my movies, not for my politics, but for me, for my personality.”
Die My Love will hit cinemas on November 7, and the drama sees her co-starring with Robert Pattinson. NME praised the film in a glowing four-star review, and described it as an “Oscars shoo-in”.