Actress Jennifer Lawrence brought her new film Red Sparrow to the Big Apple for its New York City premiere earlier this week, where she opened up about her nude scenes in the R-rated thriller. The actress revealed that these scenes were empowering for her, especially in the wake of her 2014 cell phone hack where her nude photos were leaked onto the internet. Here's what she had to say about how the nude scenes in Red Sparrow helped her get over the hack.

"The insecurity and fear of being judged for getting nude, what I went through, should that dictate decisions I make for the rest of my life? This movie changed that and I didn't even realize how important changing that mentality was until it was done. But I also really challenged myself in ways that I never really had before. The foreign accent. The dancing. It was really taking on a very different leaf."

The movie follows Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence), a former ballerina who, after seeing something she shouldn't have, has a choice to either be killed or join a "Sparrow School," where she is trained to use her body as a weapon, with her first mission to seduce a CIA agent (Joel Edgerton). Jennifer Lawrence revealed that she was mentally prepared for these nude scenes and other violent scenes because director Francis Lawrence warned her about them in advance.

"We talked about it extensively, which was really important for showing up on the day and there being no surprises. I knew exactly what was going on and also there was one moment he came out to give me a note and just looked at me like I had clothes, and then I just felt like I had clothes on. I was surrounded by professionals and everybody was completely professional."

Director Francis Lawrence added that Jennifer Lawrence was the "first person to see the movie as a whole with those scenes" and added that, "she was totally with it" and that she didn't have him, "pull anything." The director had worked with Jennifer Lawrence in the last three Hunger Games movies which he directed, but he added that despite their long history together, he wasn't even sure she would want to make this movie.

"Look, I wasn't sure she was going to want to do the movie. And I pitched her the idea in general, but I didn't tell her much about the content. She liked the idea of the character in general, and I sort of filled her in a little bit along the way, but I wanted her to wait for the script. She thought about it, because clearly she knew what the content was going to be. And as soon as she said, 'I want to do it,' I said, 'OK, I'm coming over to your house and we're having a really frank conversation.'"

Red Sparrow also stars Charlotte Rampling, Matthias Schoenaerts, Mary-Louise Parker, Ciaran Hinds, Joely Richardson and Jeremy Irons. The film will go up against another R-rated thriller, Death Wish, when it hits theaters this weekend. You can head over to Variety for more on Red Sparrow.