Director of controversial Jennifer Lawrence Netflix movie responds to criticism

The director of the controversial Jennifer Lawrence comedy No Hard Feelings has addressed the criticism aimed at the film, and given a pretty clear response.

Gene Stupnitsky has spoken about the age gap between the two main characters, which has attracted some backlash on social media.

The sex comedy movie was released earlier this year and has now found a new audience after landing on Netflix.

The film focuses on Lawrence's character Maddie who discovers a lucrative job for the summer; dating an introverted 19-year-old, Percy – played by Andrew Barth Feldman, before he goes to college.

Social media users have criticised the age gap between the characters – but Stupnitsky shut down the backlash in a series of interviews.

The filmmaker spoke about another of Lawrence’s movies, Silver Linings Playbook, which features a similar age gap between the characters played by Lawrence and Bradley Cooper.

Lawrence stars in the 2023 sex comedy No Hard FeelingsNetflix

Speaking at the film premiere in New York, Stupnitsky said: “It goes the other way too. We took great pains to be careful about the ick factor because it could go that way... We took a humanist approach and I think that's all you can ask for."

Feldman also spoke during an interview with Vanity Fair, saying: "Because what is a comedy if it’s not at least a little controversial?"

He added: "But Percy is an adult. I am an adult, and this is a cringe comedy. It should make you uncomfortable. I’m disinterested in a movie, and specifically a comedy, about people who are perfect and make the right decisions all the time.”

He went on to say: "[We were so thoughtful about it throughout. Constantly, every day talking about what it meant and how it would manifest in a truthful way.

"And I think people are going to be surprised with not just how funny it turns out to be, and how uncomfortable it maybe makes them, but also how beautiful this relationship is and how heartfelt it is."

It comes after Lawrence has left viewers of her new film No Hard Feelings stunned by a fight scene on a beach in the new film where the Oscar-winning Hollywood A-lister is completely naked.

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