Jennifer Lawrence covers Elle Magazine December 2012. Inside the issue, she addresses weight-shaming in Hollywood.
When The Hunger Games was released, Lawrence spoke about the pressures of Hollywood as they related to her role because several journalists complained that her healthy weight took away from the verisimilitude of the movie. Some detractors literally called the actress (and her co-stars) fat. She got the worst of it because she was in the lead role and the comments were cruel.
Lawrence expounds in this interview that, from Hollywood’s point of view, she’s heavier than the average actress (remember when Salma Hayek called herself “chubby”). Although, Lawrence wants to be a good role model to young fans so she’s not going to acquiesce to the pressure by starving herself.
On her body type: “In Hollywood, I’m obese. I’m considered a fat actress. I’m Val Kilmer in that one picture on the beach. I eat like a caveman. I’ll be the only actress who doesn’t have anorexia rumors. I’m never going to starve myself for a part. I keep waiting for that one role to come along that scares me enough into dieting, and it just can’t happen. I’m invincible.”
On being a role model: “I don’t want little girls to be like, ‘Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I’m going to skip dinner.’ That’s something that I was really conscious of during training, when you’re trying to get your body to look exactly right. I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong, not thin and underfed.”
On her actor boyfriend Nicholas Hoult: “[My boyfriend] is honestly my best friend, and hopefully I’m his best friend too. He’s my favorite person to be around and he makes me laugh harder than anybody. We can eat Cheetos and watch beach volleyball and we turn into perverted Homer Simpsons, like, ‘Oh, she’s got a nice ass.’ I never thought we’d have such different opinions on asses.”
On her earnings: “Ten million dollars and I’m still living in my parents’ condo. I’ve always lived in a tiny rat-infested apartment in New York, or a little condo in L.A., or a normal house in [her native] Kentucky. I think it would be very bizarre to live in a big mansion by myself.” – via Elle Magazine.
