Jennifer Lawrence has spoken out in support of Palestine, describing what’s happening as “no less than a genocide.”
The 35-year-old Oscar winner, who publicly endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, made clear her stance on Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip at a Friday press conference at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
“I’m terrified and it’s mortifying. What’s happening is no less than a genocide and it’s unacceptable,” she said when asked about Palestine.
“I’m terrified for my children, for all of our children,” the mother of two said about what it means for the future, adding that it makes her “so sad” knowing that the current “disrespect and discourse” in American politics will be “normal” to younger generations.
“I mean, the kids who are voting right now at 18, it’s going to be totally normal to them that politics has no integrity. Politicians lie, there is no empathy,” Lawrence argued. “And everybody needs to remember that when you ignore what’s happening on one side of the world, it won’t be long until it’s on your side as well.”
She continued: “I wish that there was something I could say, something that I could do to fix this extremely complex and disgraceful situation. It breaks my heart.
“But the reality is, our fear in speaking too much or answering too many of these questions is that my words will just be used to add more fire and rhetoric to something that is in the hands of our elected officials.”
Concluding with a reminder to fellow citizens, she said: “I just want people to stay focused on who is responsible and the things that they can do and when they need to show up and vote, and not let the actors and the artists who are trying to express freedom of art, freedom of speech take the heat for the individuals that are actually responsible.”
Lawrence previously revealed she voted for Republican nominee John McCain in 2008.
“My first time voting, I voted for John McCain. I was a little Republican,” the Kentucky-born actor said on a 2020 episode of the Absolutely Not podcast. She clarified that while she was raised in a Republican household, she later shifted her “politics based on the things I learned.”
Though she acknowledged “the fiscal benefits of the Republican policies,” she said that she “could also see the social issues weren’t in line with my views.”
Last year, she endorsed former Vice President Harris due to her stance on reproductive rights. “That’s the most important thing, is to not let somebody into the White House who is going to ban abortion,” she told People magazine.
Lawrence is at the Spanish festival for the screening of her new movie, Die My Love. She will also be honored with the prestigious Donostia Award.
Directed by Lynne Ramsay, the thriller-comedy is based on Ariana Harwicz’s 2017 novel of the same name about a new mother (Lawrence) living in the countryside whose life unravels when she develops postpartum psychosis. Robert Pattinson plays Lawrence’s on-screen husband.
While Sophie Monks Kaufman acknowledged the difficulty of adapting the Argentinian author’s ambiguous bestseller in her three-star review for The Independent, she concluded that “despite strong work from Robert Pattinson, this Lynne Ramsay psycho-drama never achieves lift-off.”
