The press release a few days ago said that actress Jennifer Lawrence of Hunger Games fame was taking a break from her million dollar acting career and diving into the world of politics for a spell. In the wake of the Florida school shooting and subsequent political turmoil, this seemed like a good time for her to step away and be a voice for positive change. She is reported to have told Entertainment Tonight that she was taking an entire year off and working with an organization called Represent.Us. This makes perfect sense, and the timing could not be better.
Well the story has changed and it turns out that Lawrence’s spokesperson relayed the message and now has walked back the comment and commitment allegedly made by the star. The truth seems to be that she had several projects lined up and would be committing her time based on the production schedules of her upcoming projects. Once they are set, then she will return to work.
Reporting of her initial commitment stated that in an interview with morning Today show host Savannah Guthrie, Lawrence had “no new projects lined up for ‘two years’.” That leaves a lot of time to pursue these Represent.Us projects, and organization that Lawrence said she believes in their agenda. “It’s just anti-corruption and stuff trying to pass state by state laws that can help prevent corruption, fix our democracy.” She said.
So which is it? Did these projects just magically appear or is it that Lawrence is really not as committed to her politics as she is to her movie career? Followers of Lawrence appear to be happy she will be spending any time supporting their cause, regardless of any verbal and public commitments she might make. Critics of Lawrence are shaking their heads at the willful deception and change of heart Lawrence seems to have little concern over.
There were some cautionary signs when the announcement first came out. One media source noted that back in 2014 after wrapping up The Hunger Games, she was going to turn her phone off for an entire year, a statement that was never backed up by an action. Give her credit though. She knows her fan base and knows they will not hold her accountable unless she does something really egregious.
One website supportive of Lawrence posted the headline, “Jennifer Lawrence Lied About Taking A Year Off Acting To Pursue Activism” followed by “This is pretty low…” So maybe not everyone is giving her a pass on this issue, though the website later said that Lawrence was having “a bad week.” This may be true, and we should all remember we are just as prone to having a bad week as anyone else. The problem with this is that her timing could not be worse given the political turmoil over the last few days.
Maybe she meant well, or maybe she was just trying to get some attention for her new movie, Red Sparrow. Given the lack of quality of many movies these days, if Red Sparrow turns out great then even many of us average types will go see the movie. And that is not a bad thing because we could use a diversion from all the political noise going on.
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