NEW YORK: Jennifer Lawrence has spoken for the first time about the nude celebrity photo scandal, saying that having her private pictures hacked amounted to a "sex crime".
The 24-year-old star of The Hunger Games and American Hustle made the comments following the publication online of a series of photographs showing famous people naked.
The American actress accused all those who looked at the pictures, including people close to her, of committing a "sexual offence", saying: "It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It's disgusting."
Her remarks were made in an interview for the November issue of Vanity Fair, featuring a photo-shoot in which she is shown posing topless with parts of her breasts exposed. Some critics on social media accused her of hypocrisy.
In the interview, the actress said of the hacked photos: "Just because I'm a public figure, just because I'm an actress, does not mean that I asked for this. It does not mean that it comes with the territory. It's my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting.
"Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offence. You should cower with shame. Even people who I know and love say, 'Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures'. I don't want to get mad, but at the same time I'm thinking, 'I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body'."
Lawrence called for a change in the law to allow websites which publish photographs without the consent of their subjects to be prosecuted. "Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody's mind is to make a profit from it. It's so beyond me," she said.
"I can't imagine being that thoughtless and careless and so empty inside."
Lawrence explained her decision not to speak out sooner following the publication in August of photographs she took for a boyfriend, saying she had considered putting out a statement but "every single thing that I tried to write made me cry or get angry".
She added: "I started to write an apology, but I don't have anything to say I'm sorry for. I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years. It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he's going to look at you."
The actress told of the agony she went through at realising she would have to tell her construction worker father Gary what had happened, saying no amount of money she received from her acting career compensated for the ordeal.
"When I have to make that phone call to my dad and tell him what's happened.?.?. I don't care how much money I get for The Hunger Games, I promise you, anybody given the choice of that kind of money or having to make a phone call to tell your dad that something like that has happened, it's not worth it," she said.
The FBI is investigating the hacking, with more victims having emerged in recent weeks.
The photo-shoot in the magazine was by the renowned fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier. In one photograph, chosen as the cover picture, Lawrence is seen emerging apparently topless from a swimming pool.
While some on social media criticised her for the shoot, others defended her, saying it was for the actress to decide the circumstances in which she chose to reveal her body to the public.
The shoot was carried out before her private nude photographs were leaked.
