For years, Jennifer Lawrence was Hollywood’s progressive darling — a bold, unfiltered voice who never missed an opportunity to trash conservatives, torch Donald Trump, and turn red carpet appearances into political soapboxes. But in a surprising and (dare we say) overdue about-face, Lawrence is now singing a very different tune: Maybe celebrities endlessly opining about politics is actually part of the problem.
Yes, really.
Speaking on The Interview, a New York Times podcast, the Oscar-winning actress admitted that she regrets her past behavior during the Trump presidency — including her repeated public attacks on the president and Republicans at large. It’s a moment of reflection few in Hollywood have had the humility (or courage) to voice out loud.
“I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off,” Lawrence said of her post-2016 political frenzy. She recalled feeling like she had to “say something” during the Trump years — the kind of performative urgency that infected half of Hollywood during that time. But now? She’s seeing the damage.
“Celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for,” she said bluntly. And with that, a seismic crack formed in the wall of Hollywood’s leftist consensus.
Lawrence continued: “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.”
And just like that, she named the very thing critics have been pointing out for years: that elite celebrities, insulated in their mansions and privilege, frequently inflame national division with political hot takes that alienate half their audience.
She even admitted that constant celebrity commentary — especially from left-wing actors — has hurt the film industry itself. “One half of the internet doesn’t want to see their face anymore,” she said of fellow actors who chose politics over performance. “It feels so wrong.”
Lawrence now says she wants her political commentary to come through her work, not her interviews. And perhaps most notably, she acknowledged the core truth that has eluded much of her industry: “Trump 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.”
That line may be the most politically honest sentence to come from a celebrity this decade.
No spin. No lecture. Just a rare recognition of the American electorate’s right to choose differently than Hollywood’s self-anointed conscience.
Yes, Lawrence admits she was younger, immature, and swept up in a moment. She even half-joked that she “regrets everything I’ve ever done or said.” But within that jest is a sobering realization — that in trying to fight Trump, she became part of the political noise that helped fracture a country already fraying at the seams.
Is this a full redemptive arc? Not quite. But it’s a start.
