The rise of billionaire businessman Donald Trump from fledgling 2016 presidential candidate to the presumed nominee for the Republican Party is a prospect that few would have thought possible when he announced his candidacy in June 2015.
Since that declaration, Trump has been a lightning rod for controversy, offering a string of remarks that were deemed offensive by specific demographic groups. It was in his original announcement where he offended Mexicans and Latinos in general by describing the former as “drug dealers” and “rapists.”
That bold talk has led many individuals to express their disgust with his comments, with one of the most recent coming from actress Jennifer Lawrence. In the midst of promoting her current film, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” Lawrence appeared on the Graham Norton show in Great Britain.
After Norton showed a photograph of fellow guest Johnny Depp dressed as Trump that offered a striking resemblance to the businessman, Lawrence said, “I never thought I wanted to kill Johnny Depp before.” The commented elicited laughter from the audience, with Depp jokingly adding, “I can only say that you should.”
A short while later, Lawrence was asked by Norton if she had ever met Trump. She indicated that she hadn’t before then offering an anecdote about him. The story was another strong indication of her intense dislike for Trump.
Lawrence indicated that she was at a concert and had heard that Trump was also among the audience members. Traveling with a security team, Lawrence gave instructions to her staff that she wanted them to find him in order to have a video made. In that proposed video, she indicated that she would have shouted, “Hey Trump, f**k you,” while also giving him the finger.
That remark was the latest in a string of comments that Lawrence has made in reference to the prospect of Trump winning the presidency. Last September, Lawrence was again promoting one of her movies, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, when she spoke to Entertainment Weekly.
Asked about Trump then, Lawrence stated that an election victory by the businessman would indicate the end of the word. She also stated that Trump’s candidacy itself was simply the latest indication that reality television had invaded the political spectrum.
Lawrence then sarcastically referenced Trump’s penchant for making politically incorrect comments by citing the fact that one of his supporters noted how such comments mirrored his own. Indicating that such an approach on a world stage would quickly become an embarrassment for Americans, Lawrence stated that she didn’t want such a person to represent the United States.
Six weeks after those comments were published, Lawrence essentially repeated them in another magazine article. She indicated that during her formative years in Louisville, Kentucky, she had been raised in a Republican household.
However, she noted that it was hard for her to fathom a scenario in which she would support a political party that, in her eyes, didn’t support women’s rights. Also, she stated that she was in favor of gay marriage.
The latter point led to a comment of disgust connected to the uproar last year relating to county clerk Kim Davis’ refusal to process gay marriage licenses. The fact that Davis was doing it in Lawrence’s home state was especially upsetting to the actress.
Lawrence, who won an Academy Award for her role in the 2012 film, “Silver Linings Playbook,” has previously criticized the pay gap between men and women. In her remarks, she indicated that she was upset when she discovered that she made less than her co-stars of previous films.