A satirical moment between Jennifer Lawrence and Joanna Lumley at the BAFTA Awards left a sour taste in the mouths of many viewers, who went online to accuse the actress of being a spoiled brat.
Lumley was hosting the award ceremony. The 71-year-old actress introduced Lawrence early on, referencing her beauty as well as her enormous career, which has only continued to skyrocket as of late.
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“Right let’s start giving out some of those beautiful BAFTAs shall we?” Lumley said. “And we start with the award for Outstanding British Film, and who better to kick the whole evening off than the hottest actress on the planet.”
“Soon to be seen in Red Sparrow, it’s the ravishing Jennifer Lawrence,” Lumley added.
Lawrence took the stage in a black gown. The 27-year-old actress looked politely dubious of Lumley’s compliment.
“Hi,” she said. “That was a bit much, but thank you Joanna.”
The response was incongruous to many viewers, who felt that Lawrence had taken a serious compliment from an accomplished actress as an insult. On Twitter, many people voiced their frustration, while others defended Lawrence over a moment that might simply have been awkward.
“How rude was Jennifer Lawrence to Joanna Lumley?” tweeted one user.
How rude was Jennifer Lawrence to Joanna Lumley? #EEBAFTAs
— Renu Ame Naggayar (@RenuAmeNaggayar) February 18, 2018
“Puzzled by everyone accusing Jennifer Lawrence of being rude to Joanna Lumley,” tweeted another. “Joanna introduced her as being the ‘hottest actress on the planet’ & ‘ravishing’. Jennifer laughed and modestly described the compliment as a ‘bit much’ but thanked her for it. How is that rude?”
Puzzled by everyone accusing Jennifer Lawrence of being rude to Joanna Lumley. Joanna introduced her as being the ‘hottest actress on the planet’ & ‘ravishing’. Jennifer laughed and modestly described the compliment as a ‘bit much’ but thanked her for it. How is that rude? 🙄
— Jenny (@mb20nut) February 18, 2018
Once the whole thing had been sufficiently blown out of proportion, Lawrence revealed that it was nothing more than a hasty joke gone awry. She addressed the moment in an appearance on a UK station called Magic Radio.
“Everybody thought that I was being rude. But to be fair, I couldn’t have just walked out after she was like, ‘biggest movie star in the world!’” she said. “And if I’d just walked out and gone ‘thank you Joanna,’ it would have been like, ‘So you agree? You think you’re really pretty!’”
“It was an inside joke,” she continued. “She went on and said all these really nice things about me and then when I got up to the podium, I was like ‘that was a bit much.’ After I just spent all backstage telling her how to be really nice to me. I wasn’t being rude, it was an inside joke.”
