Jennifer Lawrence shares sexual harassment experience
Jennifer Lawrence is joining the many voices in Hollywood standing up against inappropriate treatment of women.
A week after dozens of women accused big-time producer Harvey Weinstein of sexually harassing and assaulting them, the actress spoke at Elle's 24th annual Women in Hollywood celebration to share a "humiliating" and "degrading" experience she faced early in her career.
SEE ALSO:Kate Winslet refused to thank Harvey Weinstein in her 2009 Oscars speech"When I was much younger and starting out, I was told by the producers of a film to lose 15 pounds in two weeks," Lawrence said at the Monday night event. She went on to explain that another actress had already been fired because she was unable to lose weight quick enough for the producers. Then things got even worse.
"During this time a female producer had me do a nude line-up with about five women who were much, much, thinner than me," Lawrence recalled.
"We stood side-by-side with only paste-ons covering our privates. After that degrading and humiliating line-up, the female producer told me I should use the naked photos of myself as inspiration for my diet."
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The actress also shared with the crowd that when she asked to speak to a male producer about the "unrealistic diet regime" he simply told her he "didn't know why everyone thought I was so fat" and he thought she "was perfectly 'fuckable,'" per an Ellewriteup of the event.
Lawrence explained that she felt "trapped" by the situation and in a place where she didn't want to negatively impact her career. But after being cast in The Hunger Gamesshe felt as though she had more power to use her voice to speak up.
"I want you to know we're here for you. We're all here for each other."
Though Lawrence acknowledged the great sadness that's resulted from so many women coming forward with tragic stories of assault and harassment, she described the experience as "oddly unifying."
"I want you to know we're here for you. We're all here for each other. Together, now, we will stop this kind of behavior from happening," she said, per Elle. "We will stop normalizing these horrific situations. We will change this narrative and make a difference for all of those individuals pursuing their dreams."
Lawrence was one of eight honorees at the event, including Reese Witherspoon, who shared a personal account of sexual assault in Hollywood with the audience.
Following the Weinstein news, Alyssa Milano created the #MeToo hashtag to encourage people to share their stories of sexual harassment and assault on social media to raise awareness of how pressing and widespread the problem is. And ever since, thousands of people have used the hashtag to speak out.
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