(KHON) — Movie star Jennifer Lawrence has apologized for her actions while on location shooting “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” in Hawaii several years ago, specifically in Waimea Valley.

While on a British television talk show promoting her latest film “Passengers,” Lawrence joked about sitting on sacred rocks during a day of filming. She said that “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.”

BBC News further quoted her, adding that “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.'”

Lawrence’s comments sparked a lot of backlash on social media and the actress issued an apology on her Facebook page, saying “I meant absolutely no disrespect to the Hawaiian people.

“I really thought that I was being self-deprecating about the fact that I was ‘the curse,’ but I understand the way it was perceived was not funny and I apologize if I offended anyone,” she said.

Waimea Valley executive director Richard Pezzulo released the following statement Friday afternoon:

At Waimea Valley, we take great care in preserving the cultural integrity of this sacred site. We assign a full-time cultural advisor to educate and monitor during any film production in the Valley. It’s very unfortunate that this incident has now been revisited through Jennifer Lawrence’s interview on BBC and we are offended by her actions. Although it has been some years since this desecration occurred, we were made aware of it at the time and have taken steps to address it. We do not wish to comment any further about the incident but since it has been brought to light, we would appreciate a personal apology from Ms. Lawrence for her continued insensitive remarks on a culturally sensitive matter.

This isn’t the first time a movie filmed in Hawaii has been criticized for lacking cultural sensitivity.

We spoke with commissioner Donne Dawson of the Hawaii Film Office who says the office is helping with a handbook to give to visiting production companies before filming.

She says production companies are already given guidelines for filming in culturally sensitive locations, but the office is expanding on that with a handbook created by the non-profit Pacific Islanders in Communications.

“We don’t want this to come off as we’re preaching to them,” Dawson said, “but just educating them, so that they can understand more about our history and our culture.

“We want to take away the excuse that people are ignorant of our customs and culture, or that they didn’t know any better.”

When asked if there’s somebody on set to monitor filming in culturally sensitive areas, Dawson said “it’s not always possible for them to get cultural consultants on set with them, but we do strongly encourage them to do so.”

The Hawaii Film Office does not issue permits for filming in certain sacred areas such as known burial sites. We were told the area “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” was filming is not under state jurisdiction.

Other recent movies with ties to Hawaii have also sparked controversy: Some voiced anger about the portrayal of Polynesians in Disney’s animated film “Moana” and 2015’s “Aloha,” that was filmed on location in Hawaii, also drew criticism after actress Emma Stone was cast as a character that she said was a quarter Hawaiian and a quarter Chinese.

Pacific Islanders in Communications tells us the handbook should be ready by 2018, but since this incident with Lawrence came up again, we’re told they’d like to get it done as soon as possible.