Jennifer Lawrence Draws Criticism For First Female Action Movie Lead Remarks

I have a message for President Snow. You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that? Fire is catching, and if we burn, you burn with us. The last thing before we go tonight, Hollywood's heroines. Jennifer Lawrence, superstar, recently sat down with Viola Davis, star of the new action film, Woman King, for a discussion hosted by Variety Magazine, and one part of their conversation has been getting a lot of attention today. Watch this. 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. We were told girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead. Oh, absolutely. And it just makes me so happy every single time I see a movie come out that just blows through every single 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. I'm sorry, what? Did you catch that? Lawrence said, quote, nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie before she starred in the Hunger Games in 2012. Well, for fact's sake, I know some very special women who would like a word. Our girl J-Law is forgetting some major female icons that came before her. Sigourney Weaver in Alien as Ellen Ripley. Angelina Jolie, aka Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. How about Kate Beckinsale as Selene in Underworld? You can never forget Halle Berry as Catwoman or Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Demi Moore, of course, in GI Jane. And the one and only hero of heroes, Pam Greer as the legendary Foxy Brown. Now this next one was a TV show, not a movie, but I cannot leave out the most amazing Linda Carter as Wonder Woman. So while what Lawrence said about women not starring in action movies before her is obviously not true, let's not overlook her main point. Jennifer Lawrence said, quote, we were told girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys, they cannot identify with a female lead. Well, box office numbers over the years have shown that is also not true. We just laid out there a very long list of very successful female led movies that prove it. So I say let's keep these women leading in roles in big, big movies and lead roles in the boardroom. Women can lead all day, every day, yesterday and tomorrow.