The Offensive Joke That Got Jennifer Lawrence Thrown Into Media Training

One of the reasons we still love Jennifer Lawrence is because she lacks a proper filter on her mouth. While out promoting a film (and she has appeared in several over the past few years), Lawrence is prone to saying whatever thought crosses her mind. But she usually does it in a way that’s moderately self-deprecating, playful, funny and charming. However, that’s not always the way things come out.

Jennifer Lawrence is making the rounds, at the moment, in support of X-Men: Apocalypse, where she once again plays Mystique. On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the painfully candid actress recalls a time when she made a joke in front of journalists – just Jen being Jen! Only, it went way too far, and she eventually paid the price. While promoting the 2008 film The Burning Plain, in which she co-starred with Kim Basinger, Lawrence attended a press conference in which her co-star couldn’t attend. Things went downhill, quickly:

Kim Basinger wasn’t there. … I just leaned into the microphone [in response to a question asking where Basinger was] and was like, ‘You didn’t hear? Kim died.’ … I got ripped off the stage, thrown into media training, which was hilarious, because I was like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

What, that’s not funny to some people? Maybe Kim Basinger got a good chuckle out of it. I’m sure the journalists in the room understood that Jennifer Lawrence was kidding. Or maybe they hadn’t yet figured out that this blonde beauty has a dark-black sense of humor that still, to this day, gets her in hot water. As she later joked to Jimmy Fallon, about her recent foibles on the X-Men press junket:

My publicist told me a week ago, ‘Stop telling people they don’t have to see X-Men.' I’m always like, ‘I don’t know. If it feels right. No pressure.’

This approach to the press could eventually blow up in Jennifer Lawrence’s face. She has enjoyed being a Media Darling, but the press corps is a rabid, savage and unpredictable bunch, and they’ll quickly turn on someone they pretended to adore at the drop of a sound bite. Trust me, I know. I’m one of those two-faced animals. At the same time, Lawrence continues to SOUND charming in these late-night interviews, even when she’s talking about a co-star possibly being dead:

Kim Basinger isn’t dead. In fact, she has a decent role in The Nice Guys, in theaters now. And Jennifer Lawrence will be in X-Men: Apocalypse, in theaters on May 27.

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.