Jennifer Lawrence, Reese Witherspoon Talk About Hollywood Sex Abuse: JLaw Once Required To Do ‘Nude Line-Up’

In an exclusive interview with ET’s Carly Steel, Jennifer Lawrence revealed that she plans to start a community to support and protect Hollywood women from sexual abuse. She said her decision was inspired by her own experience of sexual harassment and sexism in Hollywood.

The Oscar winner and Hunger Games star also revealed in a speech delivered at Monday night’s Elle’s 24th Annual Women in Hollywood event how the producer of one of her first films forced her to participate in a degrading and humiliation audition process. She was asked to do a “naked line-up” after which the producer told her that she needed to lose about 15 pounds in two weeks.

“When I was much younger and starting out, I was told by producers of a film to lose 15 pounds in two weeks.”

Lawrence said she was aware that another actress was dropped because she did not lose weight fast enough.

Lawrence recalled it was a female producer who forced her to do the “nude line-up” with about five other women who were much thinner than her.

After the nude line-up, the female producer advised her to use the photos taken while she stood naked to inspire her to diet and lose weight.

“After that degrading and humiliating line-up, the female producer told me I should use the naked photos of myself as inspiration for my diet.”

She later complained to another producer about the demand that she should lose 15 pounds in two weeks.

“He said he didn’t know why everyone thought I was so fat,” Lawrence said. “He thought I was ‘perfectly f**kable.'”

Lawrence said she found the incident humiliating and degrading, but she was forced to comply with the unreasonable demands because she was afraid to lose a career opportunity.

“I’m still learning that I don’t have to smile when a man makes me uncomfortable,” she said. “Every human being should have the power to be treated with respect because they’re human.”

She had earlier told ET that Charlize Theron, Diane Lane, Gloria Steinem, James Fonda, and Oprah Winfrey were some of her role models. She added that she now plans to use her experience in Hollywood to help other women. She revealed that she and some other women plan to come together to create ” a community of support” for women, so that women who experience degrading, humiliating treatment, sexual harassment, and assault would be able to seek help.

Reese Witherspoon also talked about her sexual harassment and assault experience. During her speech at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event, she claimed that a Hollywood director sexually harassed her as a 16-year-old.

She was unable to speak out about it at the time because agents and producers made her feel she had to remain silent to protect her career and employment. The result was that she had to bottle up her anger and frustration, and it caused her to suffer anxiety.

Witherspoon said her experience at 16 was not the last time. She experienced sexual harassment and assault several times during her Hollywood career.

The revelations come after multiple women came out with allegations that former studio boss, Harvey Weinstein, sexually harassed and assaulted them.

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]