Actress Jennifer Lawrence — once one of Hollywood’s loudest progressive voices — is finally admitting what millions of Americans have known for years: the celebrity obsession with politics is tearing the country apart.
Appearing on The Interview podcast hosted by The New York Times, the 35-year-old Hunger Games star confessed she’s beginning to regret her years of partisan activism and her attacks on former President Donald Trump.
“I don’t really know if I should,” Lawrence said when asked about her current political views. “The first Trump administration was so wild and just how can we let this stand? I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.”
Her tone, however, has clearly shifted. “As we’ve learned, election after election, celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for,” she admitted. “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.”
For an industry that has spent decades lecturing the public on everything from elections to “equity,” this rare bit of honesty from one of its most recognizable faces is striking. Lawrence acknowledged she’s now trying to step back from political soapboxing — not out of apathy, but because she’s finally realizing the damage it’s done to both the country and her craft.
“I think I’m in a complicated recalibration because I’m also an artist,” she said. “With this temperature and the way things can turn out, 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. I want to protect my craft so that you can still get lost in what I’m doing.”
Lawrence’s remarks touch on a truth conservatives have long pointed out: when actors, singers, and late-night hosts use their platforms to mock half the country, they alienate the very audiences who once supported them. Even Hollywood can’t thrive while insulting millions of paying customers.
“You watch these actors’ faces who have had incredible careers and made incredible contributions and then one half of the internet doesn’t want to see their face anymore,” Lawrence said. “I get so upset for those people and it feels so wrong.”
The actress explained that she now prefers to express her views through her work instead of through public outbursts. “I try to express my politics through my work,” she said. “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.”
Perhaps most surprising, Lawrence acknowledged that President Trump’s policies reflected the will of the voters — a rare admission in an industry that often mocks Middle America. “I regret everything I’ve ever done or said,” she joked, before adding, “The second [Trump] 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.”
It’s a remarkable shift from the actress who once scolded conservatives from award-show podiums and red carpets. Lawrence admitted her early political statements came from a place of immaturity. “I’ve also grown up,” she said. “And yeah, I’m a lot more nervous about whatever I say publicly. I don’t want to give an interview that’s a bunch of sound bites and a word salad… So I’m trying to strike that balance.”
Her newfound restraint is telling. After years of Hollywood elites pushing politics over entertainment, even its biggest names are realizing the audience is walking away. Americans don’t want moral lectures — they want stories, art, and truth that bring people together, not tear them apart.
Jennifer Lawrence stars next in Die My Love, premiering November 7 — a film about isolation and madness. Some might say Hollywood’s long flirtation with political self-destruction fits the same description.
