US ACTRESS JENNIFER Lawrence has said that she was made to stand in a nude line-up and told by film producers to lose weight at the beginning of her career.
Speaking at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event, Lawrence (27) said she felt like she had no power over the situation because she was still an unknown actress. Her comments were made in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that is roiling Hollywood.
“I will lend my voice to any boy, girl, man or woman who doesn’t feel like they can protect themselves,” Lawrence said.
Unlike the dozens of Hollywood celebrities that have spoken out about personal accounts of sexual assault and harassment since the Weinstein controversy, Lawrence said that she found that fame protected her from assault as her career progressed.
Lawrence, who won an Oscar in 2013 for her lead role in Silver Linings Playbook, opened up to the audience about auditioning for a film and being told to lose weight and stand in a nude line-up.
“When I was much younger and starting out, I was told by the producers of a film to lose 15 pounds in two weeks. Super easy,” she said.
“One girl before me had already been fired for not losing enough weight fast enough.
During this time, a female producer had me do a nude line-up with about five other women who were much, much thinner than me. We all stood side by side with only covering our privates.
Lawrence described the experience and “degrading and humiliating”.
She said the producer then told her she should “use the naked photos” of herself as an “inspiration” for her diet.
She went on to complain about another producer who made comments about her weight.
“He said he didn’t know why everyone thought I was so fat, he thought I was ‘perfectly [attractive]‘,” she told the crowd.
“In a dream world, everyone is treated with the exact same level of respect,” she said.
But, until we reach that goal, I will lend my ear. I will lend my voice to any boy, girl, man, or woman who does not feel like they can protect themselves.
‘Me too’
A steady stream of women have gone public with accusations against Weinstein after reports by The New York Times and The New Yorker about the misconduct claims of others. But it has spread beyond that disgraced executive, with women across the world saying they’d been harassed through the social media thread #metoo.
Meanwhile, Weinstein has resigned from the board of his production company.
Weinstein was sacked as co-chairman of The Weinstein Company on 8 October but had continued to hold a seat on the board until now.
The Weinstein Company announced on Monday that Colony Capital had agreed to provide an “immediate cash infusion” to the scandal-plagued studio and that the two parties were in talks on a potential sale.
On Tuesday, Game Of Thrones actress Lena Headey became the latest to detail alleged encounters with the mogul at the Venice Film Festival and in Los Angeles.
In a series of tweets, the English actress said after she told him she was uninterested in anything other than work, the studio boss was left “furious”.
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