Jennifer Lawrence “Wanted to Kill” Harvey Weinstein When She Heard of Sexual Misconduct Claims

Jennifer Lawrence opened up on this week’s 60 Minutes about Harvey Weinstein, her education and the 2014 nude-photo hacking incident.

Lawrence worked with Weinstein on her Oscar-winning film Silver Linings Playbook when she was just 22-years-old. She told 60 Minutes that he was “never inappropriate” with her, but that she thinks the alleged decades of sexual harassment and assault Weinstein has recently been accused of are “criminal and deplorable.” In late 2017, Lawrence sat down with Oprah Winfrey for The Hollywood Reporter‘s Women in Entertainment issue cover story and said that whenever Weinstein wasn’t nice she “called him an asshole” and they moved on. The barrage of allegations about him came as a huge shock to her.

On 60 Minutes, Lawrence said of her reaction, “When it came out and I heard about it, I wanted to kill him. The way he destroyed so many women’s lives. I want to see him in jail.”

The sit-down comes just days before her latest film, the spy thriller Red Sparrow, hits theaters. The film calls for nudity and sex, two things the actress previous told Winfrey she couldn’t picture herself doing “ever, since [pictures of her naked body] got shared against [her] will.” 

In 2014, a hacker stole her private photos and released them on the internet. But she was “dying” to be part of the movie and didn’t want to hinder herself. And she said that the role helped her reclaim her body.

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“I realized there’s a difference between consent and not,” she said on 60 Minutes. “And I showed up for the first day and I did it. And I felt empowered.” 

There wasn’t an overnight fix, but Lawrence felt like she “took the power out of having [her] body taken from [her].” At this point, she couldn’t care less what anyone thinks, saying, “It’s my body and it’s my art and it’s my choice.”

Lawrence’s independence comes in handy in times like this and traces all the way back to her childhood in Kentucky. She recalls being “a handful” and struggling through school. At 14 years old, she already knew that she wanted to be an actress. Nothing was more important to her than her career. 

“I dropped out of middle school,” she admitted. “I don’t technically have a GED or diploma. I am self-educated.” Lawrence has no regrets, saying “I wanted to forge my own path.”

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