Jennifer Lawrence has stepped in to clarify speculation surrounding her choice of footwear at Cannes.
The Silver Linings Playbook Oscar winner walked the film festival’s red carpet last month in a red Dior gown and a pair of casual black flip-flops, sparking a frenzy from observers who wondered if she was making a statement of some kind.
Many fashion experts believed it was a stand against the festival’s strict dress code, which allegedly requires all female guests to wear heels.
However, according to Lawrence, she was not making a “statement” and “had no idea” of the rules.
“I was not making a political statement – not that I wouldn’t,” she told Entertainment Tonight this week, adding: “I had no idea until it like, came out that there was a whole controversy with people wearing flats, or like, walking down the red carpet barefoot.
“I had no clue. My shoes were a size too big.”
Lawrence, who was attending her premiere of Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, said she wanted to avoid tripping.
“I knew I would eat s*** if I went down in the shoes that were a size too big,” the Hunger Games actor said. “I put on the flip-flops, and then everybody’s like, ‘What a statement! Wow’. I’m all for making a statement; I just would want it to be on purpose.”
In 2015, there was an uproar after it was claimed that women were being turned away from red carpet events at Cannes for wearing flat shoes. English actor Emily Blunt led criticism of the organisers’ behaviour: “I think everyone should wear flats, to be honest,” she said. “I just prefer wearing Converse sneakers.”
Three years later, Kristen Stewart appeared to protest the same “rule” by removing her shoes while walking the Cannes red carpet.
“There’s definitely a distinct dress code right, people get very upset at you if you don’t wear heels or something, whatever,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018.
“But I feel like you can’t ask people that anymore, it’s just kind of a given, like if you’re not asking guys to wear heels and a dress you cannot ask me either.”
Jennifer Lawrence’s new film, the comedy No Hard Feelings, will be released later this month.
The film follows a woman who accepts a Craigslist posting, in which parents of a 19-year-old with no interest in having sex want somebody to date their son in exchange for a new car.
It is scheduled for released in the UK on 21 June.
