‘Oh Honey, No’: Jennifer Lawrence Claims She Was First-ever Female Action Movie Lead

Hollywood actress Jennifer Lawrence faced intense backlash after claiming she was the first female action hero in cinema when she starred in “The Hunger Games.”

Speaking with Variety, Lawrence said that prior to her role as Katniss Everdeen, “nobody” had put a woman as the leading role in an action movie, adding that people attempted to keep women out of roles by cultivating a lie about how audiences identify with characters.

“I remember when I was doing ‘Hunger Games,’ nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie because it wouldn’t work — because we were told girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead,” she said.

“And it just makes me so happy every single time I see a movie come out that just blows through every one of those beliefs, and proves that it is just a lie to keep certain people out of the movies. To keep certain people in the same positions that they’ve always been in,” Lawrence added.

Prominent Twitter users quickly rushed to correct the actress, offering examples of high-budget action films starring female leads long before Lawrence entered the spotlight.

What about Ripley in Alien and Sarah Connor in Terminator?

Because I was obsessed with them growing up… https://t.co/sqHKLVw7PU

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) December 7, 2022