Academy Award-winning actor Jennifer Lawrence opened up to CBS Mornings' Gale King about her new Apple TV+ documentary Bread & Roses—and had a new flash for all the trolls claiming she's "not educated" enough to tackle political subjects.
Bread & Roses, which was produced by Lawrence and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, explores the lives of Afghan women under Taliban rule since the group seized control of Kabul in August 2021. Director Sahra Mani recently shared that Taliban policies have been so oppressive that women are barred from working, singing, playing music, dining out, shopping for food, or even walking in public without a male chaperone.
Regarding her decision to produce the documentary, Lawrence said:
“My first reaction when watching that [Taliban takeover] was to do what the Taliban did not want us to do, which was to give access and facilities to the people on the ground to capture what was happening on the ground in real-time."
"I can’t imagine not being able to take a taxi or not being able to listen to music. I can’t imagine if just the sound of my voice was illegal.”
Concerned about the film's subject matter, Lawrence's family and friends "definitely encouraged me not to [produce the film]," she said, adding:
"It’s dangerous. Of course it is. But there is 20 million women whose lives are in danger.”
She also spoke about her experience with trolls who've claimed she’s not educated enough to talk about politics let alone this subject matter:
“[Trolls] always say different things. I did a ’60 Minutes’ interview once where I explained that I dropped out of middle school, so I technically am not educated. A common one with this [documentary] is ‘why is someone without an education trying to talk about politics?’ To that I say it’s not political, it’s peoples lives.”
“It’s political in the sense that you should push your congresspeople and you should get involved to make our government more accountable. Then the UN can recognize gender apartheid. But I don’t find it political. Also, I am educated in filmmaking. I’m educated in telling stories.”
You can hear what she said in the video below.
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Many praised Lawrence's statements.
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A review from Variety describes Bread & Roses as "a necessary howl of rage, one that argues cogently — via the simple expedient of capturing life as it is lived — that to ignore what it happening in Afghanistan is to condemn half the population of the country to oppression under a dictatorship that is both political and personal."
The film is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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