Jennifer Lawrence stood up to a director, was punished as a result

Hollywood has been rocked by the ongoing sex scandal, many high-profile producers and actors having allegations made against them, stemming back decades.

Speaking on The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Actress Roundtable, Jennifer Lawrence — alongside Allison Janney, Mary J. Blige, Emma Stone, and Saoirse Ronan — explained how a culture of fear has kept women from coming forward for so long.

“I finally made the decision to stand up for myself, and then I went to go to the bathroom at work and one of the producers stopped me and was like, ‘You know, we can hear you on the microphone, you’ve been really unruly,'” she said.

“Which was not true, but basically my job was threatened because the director said something f**ked up to me and I said, ‘That’s sick, you can’t talk to me like that,’ and then I was punished, and I got afraid that I wasn’t going to be hired again.”

Stone added how women who stand up for themselves are deemed “difficult”, Lawrence continuing: “I was called difficult and a nightmare. I think a lot of people aren’t coming forward because they’re afraid they’re not going to work again.

“You need to be able to say, ‘This is wrong’ and have somebody do something about it instead of saying, ‘Oh, it’s wrong? Well, you’re fired.’”

Numerous well-known Hollywood names have been accused of sexual misconduct over the past few weeks, including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and James Toback.