Jennifer Lawrence has responded to criticism from BAFTA viewers that she was “rude” to host Joanna Lumley during the ceremony, saying that her comments were an “inside joke”.
Lumley took over from Stephen Fry as the host of last night’s BAFTAs and introduced Lawrence by describing her as “the hottest actress on the planet” and calling her “ravishing”.
Lawrence then took to the stage to introduce the Outstanding British Film award and thanked Lumley by saying: “Hi, that was a bit much but thank you, Joanna”.
Her comments were criticised by some online, with the star dubbed as “stuck up” and “rude”.
People are annoyed that Jennifer Lawrence threw shade at Joanna Lumley during the #Baftas Did you see it ?
@JoannaLumley is an Icon & Legend ❤️❤️❤️❤️ #DontDissOurJoanna pic.twitter.com/mmJmykBaml— GloTIME (@GloTIMETV_) February 19, 2018
“I want to clear it up,” Lawrence has now told Ronan Keating on Magic Radio. “Okay so backstage Joanna and I were both about to go out… and I was like, ‘Just [say] adjective after adjective, ‘tall’, ‘beautiful’, just say that I’m this and that. And she was like, ‘Alright darling’.”
“It was an inside joke. She went on and said all these really nice things about me and when I got up to the podium, I was like, ‘That was a bit much’, after I spent all of backstage telling her how to be really nice to me. Then everybody thought that I was being rude. But to be fair, I couldn’t have just walked out after she [described me as] ‘the biggest movie star in the world’ and gone ‘thank you, Joanna’. That would have been like, ‘So you agree, you think you’re really pretty’.”
Last night saw the BAFTAs 2018 held in London, with Three Billboards… dominating the evening by taking home five awards – while Gary Oldman was named best Leading Actor for playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. See the full winners’ list here.
Hailed by NME as ‘masterpiece‘, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri won Best Film and Outstanding British Film, with Martin McDonagh winning Original Screenplay, Sam Rockwell taking Supporting Actor, and Frances McDormand receiving the BAFTA for Leading Actress.
Elsewhere, The Shape of Water also performed well by taking home three awards – with Guillermo del Toro named Best Director, composer Alexandre Desplat winning the Original Music award, and the film also winning the award for Production Design.
Allison Janney was named Best Supporting Actress for her role as Tonya Harding’s mother in I, Tonya, while Gary Oldman won Best Leading Actor for his role in Darkest Hour – which also won for Best Make Up And Hair for his impressive transformation into former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The campaign against sexual harassment featured strongly at the event, with many actors wearing black attire and ‘Time’s Up’ badges.