When Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016, Jennifer Lawrence said her “head exploded.”
And the former Republican, who grew up in Kentucky, a state that voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, passionately spoke out against Trump repeatedly during his first term, even saying back in 2015 that if he was elected it would be “the end of the world.” Lawrence supported Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 and endorsed Trump’s 2020 and 2024 opponents, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. She even knocked on doors for Harris in Las Vegas a year ago, just days before the 2024 election.
But now, amid a more reflective approach to her public comments and persona, she’s questioning if she should speak out against the president.
“I don’t really know if I should,” Lawrence told The New York Times on the outlet’s The Interview podcast. “During the first Trump administration, I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. But as we’ve learned, election after election, celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. So then what am I doing? I’m just sharing my opinion on something that’s going to add fuel to a fire that’s ripping the country apart. We are so divided.”
She also indicated she’s conscious of how her audience might react to what she says.
“I think I’m in a complicated recalibration because I’m also an artist. I don’t want to start turning people off to films and to art that could change consciousness or change the world because they don’t like my political opinions,” she added. “I want to protect my craft so that you can still get lost in what I’m doing. And if I can’t say something that’s going to speak to some kind of peace or lowering the temperature or some sort of solution, I don’t want to be a part of the problem. I don’t want to make the problem worse.”
Lawrence’s recent comments echo what she told Vanity Fair in 2018 when she explained why she avoided discussing politics prior to Trump’s rise to power.
“I’ve always thought that it was a good idea to stay out of politics,” she said. “Twenty-five percent of America identifies as liberal and I need more than 25 percent of America to go see my movies. It’s not wise, career-speaking, to talk about politics. When Donald Trump got sworn into office, that fucking changed.”
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for The Hollywood Reporter near the end of the first year of Trump’s first term, she shared her fantasy of confronting him in public.
“I’ve got a pretty good speech. And it ends with a martini to the face,” she said amid laughter. “I have something to say for all of them. I watch different characters on the news, and I’m like, ‘You just wait.’ … I’ve been waiting for this moment. I’ll give you a hint — it’s not nice. You wouldn’t want me to say it to you.”
When she endorsed Harris a little over a year ago, Lawrence specifically cited the issue of reproductive rights, which she’s consistently voiced her support for.
“Abortion is literally on the ballot,” Lawrence told People at the time. “I’m voting for Kamala Harris because I think she’s an amazing candidate, and I know that she will do whatever she can to protect reproductive rights. That’s the most important thing, is to not let somebody into the White House who is going to ban abortion.”
Shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Lawrence, who revealed that she planned on having an abortion when she got pregnant in her 20s before she miscarried, told Vogue that she “can’t fuck with people who aren’t political anymore,” because the state of the country is “too dire” and “politics are killing people.”
Speaking to The Times recently, Lawrence, who next stars opposite Robert Pattinson in Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, that she hoped to make an impact politically via her work.
“I try to express my politics through my work,” she noted. “A lot of movies coming out from my production company are expressions of the political landscape and that’s how I feel like I can be helpful.”
Indeed, in recent years her production company Excellent Cadaver, has supported two documentaries about women’s rights: the Malala Yousafzai co-produced Bread and Roses, about women in Afghanistan’s experiences under the Taliban, and Zurawski v Texas, about a group of plaintiffs suing the state of Texas over its restrictive abortion laws, co-produced by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.
As for Trump, Lawrence said, “The second term feels different. Because he said what he was going to do. We knew what he did for four years. He was very clear. And that’s what we chose.”
