Hollywood A-lister Jennifer Lawrence says she’s taking a sabbatical from acting so she can help “fix our democracy.”
“I’m going to take the next year off,” Lawrence told Entertainment Tonight, explaining how she will work with a self-described anti-corruption nonprofit during her break from film. “I’m going to be working with this organization 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.”
The Hunger Games star hinted at her desire to take a break from acting last November, telling Elle magazine that she plans to trade the limelight for a farm and activism.
“I want to get a farm,” the Academy Award-winner told the lifestyle magazine. “I want to be, like, milking goats.”
Jennifer Lawrence’s ET interview, however, was the first time she offered details about her long-discussed Hollywood hiatus — though she has several films set for release this year.
The 27-year-old star is currently in the middle of a press tour for her upcoming spy thriller Red Sparrow, due out next month, which sees Lawrence as a ballerina–turned–spy. She’s filming her fourth turn as the shape-shifting mutant Mystique in X-Men: Dark Phoenix due out in November, and Lawrence has been tapped to take the starring role of billionaire tech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes in writer-director Adam McKay’s bio-drama Bad Blood.
A fierce critic of President Donald Trump, Lawrence is no stranger to political activism.
In 2015, Lawrence said it would be the “end of the world” if Trump were elected. Last August she began to soften her tone and insisted that Americans with differing political views find a “bridge” between each other.
“We can’t continue this divide and anger. There are issues affecting us as human beings, not as liberals and not as Republicans. We have to protect the foundation of this country, and acceptance,” Lawrence said in an interview with Vogue. “If you’re preaching acceptance, accept immigrants, accept Muslims, accept everybody.”
Lawrence was also among the dozens of Hollywood stars to sign a letter sent to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urging them to pass legal protection for DACA recipients. She also attended January’s Women’s March on the anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
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