I was put in ‘nude line-up’ to make me lose weight, reveals Lawrence
TWO of Hollywood’s leading women stars have opened up about their experiences of being sexually abused in their careers.
Jennifer Lawrence and Reese Witherspoon told of how their lives were scarred by the memories.
Ms Lawrence spoke up about an incident early on in her career, when she was forced to take part in a “nude line-up”.
Her revelations come as Hollywood is blown open by the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
She spoke about the “degrading and humiliating” experience at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event on Monday night, telling the audience she was told to lose 15 pounds (7kg) by film producers.
Ms Lawrence claimed another actress was fired from the role for not dropping the weight quick enough.
The actor said that then, she was made to take part in a “nude line-up” with slimmer women, as “inspiration” for her diet.
She said: “During this time, a female producer had me do a nude line-up with about five women who were much, much, thinner than me.
“We are stood side-by-side with only tape on covering our privates. After that degrading and humiliating line-up, the female producer told me I should use the naked photos of myself as inspiration for my diet.”
The situation worsened when she told a male producer that she would not lose the weight.
He said he “didn’t know why everyone thought [she] was so fat”, and that he thought she was “perfectly f***able”.
The actor said she felt she had to be treated that way or her career would not progress.
She said: “I’m still learning that I don’t have to smile when a man makes me uncomfortable.”
Ms Lawrence also claimed the director of the film asked her to star in a pornography movie, as the main character, and said other, more inappropriate things to her when she was a young star.
Ms Witherspoon said she has found it hard to sleep this past week because she’s been forced to remember a lot of “ugly truths”.
At the Women in Hollywood event this week, Ms Witherspoon spoke from the podium about how allegations against Weinstein have made her think about her own history in Hollywood. “I’ve had multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault and I don’t speak about them very often,” she shared at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills, before introducing her friend, honoree Laura Dern.
She told of her early experience of abuse: “The director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old,” which “wasn’t an isolated incident in my career,” she said, and the “anger that I felt at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition at my employment.”
Witherspoon continued: “Hearing all of the stories these past few days ...it’s made me want to speak up, and speak up loudly.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)