Jennifer Lawrence is slammed for claiming she was the first EVER female action movie lead 

Actress Jennifer Lawrence has received heavy backlash after claiming she was the first-ever female action lead in movies when starring in The Hunger Games in 2012.

In an interview with Variety, Lawrence chastised Hollywood for picking men over women to star in lead action roles. 

The Academy Award-winning actress, however, went on to incorrectly claim that there had never been a woman who starred in such a role prior to her. 

‘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, because we were told girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead,’ Lawrence said.

Her statement brewed up a storm of criticism on social media slamming Lawrence for dismissing the score of actresses who have starred in hit action movies, such as Sigourney Weaver in 1979’s iconic Alien. 

DailyMail.com Colluminist Meghan McCain was among the first to call out Lawrence, tweeting:’What about Ripley in Alien and Sarah Connor in Terminator? Because I was obsessed with them growing up.’   

Jennifer Lawrence (pictured) claimed she was the first-ever female action lead in movies when starring in 2012’s The Hunger Games 

The Academy Award-winning actress said it was her role as Katniss Everdeen (above) that broke the mold for women to star in action films 

The statement garnered backlash online as many were quick to point out that the title actually belongs to Sigourney Weaver, who played Ripley in 1979’s iconic Alien movie (above)

Twitter was abuzz with people calling out Lawrence for dismissing past action movies starring women, such as Alien and Terminator 

During her interview with Variety, which was published on Wednesday, Lawerence went on to tout her supposed impact on female action casting.

Claiming that it was her role that broke the mold, she said: ‘It just makes me so happy every single time I see a movie come out that just blows through every 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,’ she added. 

Although her statement was tweeted on Variety’s social media account, it was quickly deleted following the intense scrutiny. Video of the interview still remained posted.

Like McCain, many pointed out that the mantle of first-ever female action lead belongs to Weaver, whose performance as Ripley in the Alien franchise catapulted to stardom in 1979. 

Journalist David Leavitt tweeted such criticism, writing: ‘Jennifer Lawrence proclaiming she was the first woman to ever be the lead in an action movie… Clearly she never saw Sigourney Weaver’s Alien franchise.’ 

Twitter user Kyle Boddy also called out Lawrence for ignoring fellow Oscar-winner Uma Thurman, who is beloved for her role as ‘The Bride’ in the bloody and violent Kill Bill series.  

‘Uma thurman killed eleventy billion people with a sword with tons of blood in a quentin tarantino movie but that’s probably not as much action as hunger games i guess,’ Boddy tweeted. 

Variety had tweeted Lawrence’s controversial statement before deleting it 

Many on social media mocked Lawrence and named several action movies and actresses that predate The Hunger Games 

Dart Adams, another Twitter user, went on to list several action films starring women prior to The Hunger Games. 

‘Cleopatra Jones never happened. Coffy never happened. Aliens never happened. Long Kiss Goodnight never happened. La Femme Nikita never happened. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon never happened. Underworld never happened. Doomsday never happened. There’s MANY more…’ 

Fellow Twitter user Mike Petriello wrote: How is it possible to be this wrong has no one ever heard of Sigourney Weaver or Pam Grier.’ 

Another Twitter user with the handle Puck echoed what many were saying on social media, tweeing: Jennifer Lawrence went on to say “I’ve never watched a movie before.'”