Jennifer Lawrence sat down with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour to reflect on her career in the height of the #MeToo movement, noting that she personally experienced behavior with movie executives that “now we would call abusive.”
The Oscar-winning actress said that while she doesn’t categorize her encounters in the same severity as Harvey Weinstein’s victims, she “was certainly mistreated.” She recalled incidents in which men of power would touch her legs and not feeling comfortable enough to speak out against it.
On a more positive note, Lawrence outlined the more empowering side of the industry after shooting a nude scene for her upcoming film, Red Sparrow, in which she plays a Russian ballerina who is forced to strip naked along with a line of other women.
“The pre-emptive anxiety is so much worse than the actual reality,” she remembered. “The worst part was the night before — I didn’t sleep at all.”
However, when she got there, “everybody’s so professional and so nice. I was perfectly comfortable, and afterwards I felt empowered. I still feel empowered.”
She also mentioned director Francis Lewis, who aims to curate “the safest environments possible” and make more movies about women for women. Lawrence agreed that change will spark from such a mindset: “If we create a community where survivors can come forward and talk, then there’s going to be change and there’s going to be no way of going backwards.”
Watch the full interview on CNN‘s website.