Jennifer Lawrence has issued an apology for disrespecting a sacred Hawaiian site during filming of The Hunger Games.

The actor told a story of how, during filming, she would rub her backside on the rocks, considered to be sacred by Hawaiians.

In a statement on Facebook, she said she meant "absolutely no disrespect to the Hawaiian people".

"You're not supposed to sit on them because you're not supposed to expose your genitalia to them," she said on the chat show while promoting new movie Passenger.

"I, however, was in a wetsuit for this whole shoot so - oh my God, they were so good for butt-itching. One rock that I was butt-scratching on ended up coming loose.

"It was a giant boulder and it rolled down this mountain and almost killed our sound guy."

She added: "His whole station got destroyed, it was a huge dramatic deal and all the Hawaiians were like 'Oh my god, it's the curse'. And I'm round the corner going, 'I'm your curse - I wedged it loose with my ass'."

She faced backlash on social media for the comments.