Jennifer Lawrence responds to BAFTA backlash over 'rude' remark to Joanna Lumley

Jennifer Lawrence has laughed off the trivial backlash against her following an appearance at the BAFTAs.

The actress had been accused of being ‘rude’ by Joanna Lumley fans for seemingly dismissing the BAFTA host and her enthusiastic introduction.

Jennifer told the Mirror that the incident was actually an ‘inside joke’ between her and Joanna after learning of what the host would be saying to introduce her.

Lumley said before Lawrence came out to present the Outstanding British Film award, “Who better to kick the whole evening off than the hottest actress on the planet, the ravishing Jennifer Lawrence!”

Jennifer said, “that was a bit much, but thank you, Joanna,” because she felt any other reaction would have seem like she was agreeing with the statement.

“I couldn’t have just walked out and gone, ‘Thank you, Joanna’. It would’ve been like, ‘So you agree?’” Lawrence explained.

She also said in an interview after the awards: “I want to clear it up. Okay so backstage Joanna and I were both about to go out… and I was like, ‘Just [say] adjective after adjective, ‘tall’, ‘beautiful’, just say that I’m this and that. And she was like, ‘Alright darling’.”

The American actress is in town to promote her new movie Red Sparrow, an espionage thriller in which she plays a former Russian ballerina forced to become a covert operative for the State and trained to use sex and manipulation to uncover secrets.

This will Lawrence’s last film for a while as she plans on taking a year out to focus on activism.

“I’m going to take the next year off,” Lawrence told Entertainment Tonight. “I’m going to be working with this organisation as a part of Represent. Us … trying to get young people engaged politically on a local level. It doesn’t have anything to do with partisan (politics).

“It’s just anti-corruption and stuff trying to pass state-by-state laws that can help prevent corruption, fix our democracy.”

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