Jennifer Lawerence Created The Female Action Hero Role, You Know

In an interview with Variety Jennifer Lawrence claimed that she was the first woman cast as a lead in an action movie for “Hunger Games”, a quote the publication didn’t cite in the tweet below:

Variety @Variety

"We were told girls and boys could both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead," Jennifer Lawrence says of taking on the role of Katniss in #TheHungerGames. wp.me/pc8uak-1lBPlz

“I remember when I was doing ‘Hunger Games’ nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie because it wouldn’t work, we were told.”

Well that’s just untrue and ridiculous.

The most iconic female actions leads that immediately spring to mind are Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in the “Alien” series; my personal favorite of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in “Terminator” series; Uma Thurman’s infamous Bride in “Kill Bill” or any of the amazing actresses from that series; or the 99% female cast led by amazing stuntwoman Zoe Bell in the ever-fantastic “Death Proof;” Demi Moore’s amazing turn in “G.I. Jane;” or the “Charlie’s Angels” reboot with Moore, Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, and Drew Barrymore; Pam Grier in “Jackie Brown;” or Michelle Yeah and Zhang Ziyi in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon;” Milla Jovovich in “Resident Evil” or “Ultraviolet;” Angelina Jolie in “Tomb Raider,” “Salt,” “Wanted;” Gina Carano in “Haywire,” “In the Blood,” Keira Knightley in “Domino;” Halle Berry in “X-Men,” “Catwoman,” “Die Another Day;” Geena Davis in “The Long Kiss Goodnight.” We’ll be here all day if I’m to list every actress that came before J-Law as a lead in an action flick.

How do you claim that you’re the only ever and first actress cast in an action lead when this amazing scene and character exist? Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii in “Kill Bill.”

But there’s something else that Lawrence misses entirely, something I touched on briefly on my radio program earlier today, something that The Babylon Bee’s Joel Berry hit perfectly:

Joel Berry @JoelWBerry

These three iconic female action heroines have something in common: motherhood was the centerpiece of their redemptive arc. They were heroes in a way that no man could be a hero. They weren’t just generic female stand-ins for male action heroes as we often see today.

Joel Berry @JoelWBerry

Humanity.

There’s something magical about watching a cosmic battle of good verses evil but in the eyes of the female action lead it’s just about saving their child.

I’m not going to pay the indulgence of explaining that “not every female action lead is a mother” in order to pad the point for people who pride themselves on their exposed nerves. In a time when women are all but erased with phrases like “pregnant people” I want to celebrate these female leads even more. These lead characters were mothers and it’s how their ultimate vulnerability was best expressed.