Jennifer Lawrence divides internet over claim she was first female action lead

Actor Jennifer Lawrence has sparked some heated debate online after making a comment about women in lead roles in action films.

Lawrence, 32, sat down with fellow actor Viola Davis for Variety to speak about their careers in a segment "Actors on Actors."

Of course, Lawrence addressed taking on the role of Katniss Everdeen for the 2012 action sci-fi movie The Hunger Games.

The beloved young adult franchise skyrocketed Lawrence into mainstream media.

But Lawrence implied the movie was also monumental because it marked one of the first times a woman was the lead in an action film.

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"Nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie because it wouldn't work," Lawrence said. "We were told, girls and boys can both identify with a male lead but boys cannot identify with a female lead."

"It just makes me so happy every single time I see a movie come out that just blows through every single one of those beliefs and proves that it is just a lie," she added.

At the crux of her point, Lawrence was explaining how action movies are often geared toward boys or men, leaving girls and women on the sidelines.

But many found fault with Lawrence's implication that other women had not been lead roles in action films.

@MMcslappy

@300mirrors

People began listing women who had served as leads in action films like Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Alien, Milla Jovovich as Alice in the Resident Evil films, Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, and more.

@CornishForge

@dannyfdonahue

Other people believed Lawrence was right because The Hunger Games was a massive box office hit, unlike previous action films with women in lead roles.

@midnightstrack2

@MaryELynn

Many urged other people to see the middle ground in the argument, while action films featuring women in lead roles did exist before The Hunger Games, Lawrence has a point about Hollywood suppressing women in movies overall.

@Edited_for_TV

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