Amy Schumer: 'Jennifer Lawrence helped me through theatre shooting tragedy'
Jennifer Lawrence helped Amy Schumer cope with the Trainwreck movie theatre shooting last year (15) by texting her a joke following the tragedy.
The actresses have become close friends and Amy will forever be grateful for the support she received from The Hunger Games star when news of the shooting at a screening of the 35-year-old's film in Louisiana broke last year (15).
"You know, that is actually when I felt the closest to Jennifer
Lawrence, because that day she texted me, 'It's your fault'," she
tells Lena Dunham in an interview for her newsletter Lenny Letter.
"And in times like that only jokes make you feel a little better.
(The text was the) greatest and worst thing."
Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson were killed and nine others were
injured during the cinema massacre and Schumer is still having a
hard time dealing with the tragedy.
"It still f**king kills me," she says. "I might cry a little bit
talking about it, but it is fine."
After the shooting, the 35-year-old teamed up with her cousin, U.S.
Senator Chuck Schumer, to campaign for gun control reform.
"I really want to help," she told Lena, recalling a visit to the
White House when U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive
order on gun control.
"Seeing Obama deliver that speech - like, tears just shot right out
of his face when he started crying about the first graders being
shot - I was just like, I am a lifer, I am in this," she says. "I
really hope I don't have to die for it, but I would."
Another subject the Inside Amy Schumer star is passionate about
raising awareness about is sexual assault. The actress recently
became embroiled a drama surrounding Kurt Metzger, a former writer
on her Comedy Central network TV sketch show, who mocked sexual
assault survivors in a shocking series of social media rants last
month (Aug16).
Amy, who revealed her own painful experience with non-consensual
sex in her new memoir The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, was
appalled by what he said and confused about how fans turned on her
during the controversy.
"First I was like, 'F**k Kurt'," she says. "It's been years that
he's been doing this... Kurt was saying this awful stuff, and in
previous years, I would be like, 'You've got to shut up'. He'd be
like, 'All right.' Then it would kind of go away. This time, it was
just so bad...
"What he was saying was horrific, and he was being a troll," she
continues. "He can be an Internet troll. The fact that I had to
answer for it... I was like, 'Ugh, why this week?' (Jokingly), I
was like, 'If there's scandals, can't they be about me?'
"I do understand that (his actions) would come back to me...," she
adds. "I wasn't even resentful of the connection. I was resentful
of the lack of trust. Like, 'Have I earned any good will with you
guys? Do you believe that I feel that rape victims should be shamed
on the internet?'"