Hawaiians are demanding an apology from Jennifer Lawrence after she joked about scratching her butt on sacred rocks on the island.

The actress appeared on The Graham Norton Show with her Passengers co-star Chris Pratt last week (02Dec16), and laughed as she recounted the story in which she claimed to almost kill a crew member by scratching her bottom while shooting The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in 2012 on location in Hawaii.

“There were … sacred … rocks — I dunno, they were ancestors, who knows — they were sacred,” explained Jennifer. "You were not supposed to sit on them because you weren’t supposed to expose your genitalia to them.

The 26-year-old added to the Irish chat show host that she was only allowed to sit on the rocks because she was wearing a wetsuit.

“Oh, my God, they were so good for butt itching” she joked. “One rock that I was butt scratching on ended up coming loose, and it was a giant boulder and it rolled down this giant mountain and almost killed our sound guy.”

Jennifer then laughed about the fact that the Hawaiians were horrified by the incident, “All the Hawaiians were like, ‘Oh my God, it’s the curse!’ And I was sitting in the corner like, ‘Haha! I’m your curse! I wedged it loose with my a**!’”

In Hawaii, removing black sand or lava rocks is thought to cause bad luck under what is known locally as “Pele’s curse”. The removal of rocks as souvenirs is considered taboo.

Although the episode was broadcast on 2 December (16), the clip began to attract criticism online on Wednesday, with social media users condemning Jennifer for her complete disregard for sacred customs.

The Oscar winner’s actions were slammed for being "culturally insensitive" with some users calling for an apology.

"Why would you knowingly disrespect someone's culture and sacred artifacts and brag about it later? Smh (shaking my head) Jennifer Lawrence is beyond canceled," wrote one Twitter user.

“It doesn’t get more white and evil,” wrote one user of about the actress, while another Twitter user shared an article about her story and wrote: “Please get everyone to rt (retweet) this to get Jennifer Lawrence to apologize to the Hawaiian people. This is NOT okay.”