Jennifer Lawrence says she avoids politics to not ‘add fuel to a fire dividing the country’

Jennifer Lawrence said she avoids political commentary to not “add fuel to a fire that’s ripping the country apart”

Jennifer Lawrence has explained why she no longer comments on politics, saying she does not want to “add fuel to a fire that’s ripping the country apart.”

The Hunger Games star discussed her decision during an appearance on The Interview, a podcast by The New York Times.

When asked about speaking publicly on political issues, Lawrence replied: “I don’t really know if I should. 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. But as we’ve learned, election after election, celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for.”

She added: “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.”

Lawrence had been a vocal critic of Donald Trump during his first term, previously writing in 2016 that his election made “the only people that feel safe [in America]… White men.” However, she told host Lulu Garcia-Navarro she is now in what she called a “complicated recalibration” over expressing her political views.

“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,” she said. “I want to protect my craft so that you can still get lost in what I’m doing.”

While she avoids public political commentary, Lawrence said she continues to express her beliefs through her production work, citing recent films including Bread and Roses and Zurawski v. Texas.