Jennifer Lawrence – a lovable movie star

Jennifer Lawrence is only 22 and already considered a “serious actress” having two Oscar nominations and a (very recent) Golden Globe win. She also proved to be extremely versatile switching between drama, action, comedy and even horror with great ease. 

Besides she is one of my favorite persons in Hollywood – if you have ever seen a Jennifer Lawrence interview than you probably know she’s hilarious and a total goofball who’s talent is just the cherry on top of a great personality. 

I love how she doesn’t take herself too seriously and isn’t afraid to joke at her own expense. She candidly admits: "I never know what's going to come out of my mouth and that's what always gets me in trouble."

While she has often mocked her newly acquired Hollywood's IT girl status, nobody can deny her star is raising fast and burning bright right now. And unlike some other young actresses her claim to fame has a solid base in her work.

 

Jennifer started her career at an early age but never took any professional drama classes or acting lessons.

She was born in Louisville, Kentucky, has two older brothers and grew up on a horse farm. Jennifer worked as an assistant nurse at the children's camp that her parents run and graduated high school two years early with a 3.9 average in order to begin her acting career. 

When she was 14 she went to New York with her mother and was spotted by an agent that wanted to take her picture. She was then asked to come to some audition. Her talent was recognized from the very beginning with the agent telling her mom that she was "the best cold read by a 14- year-old they had ever heard". 

After that her career flourished so her parents were forced to move to Los Angeles. In fact she still lives with them which is quite refreshing for Hollywood.

 MOM?!?!

Her first acting role was in the TBS comedy, The Bill Engvall Show, the series aired for three seasons and she received the Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Performer in a TV Series for it.

The role of Katniss Everdeen in the The Hunger Games was the one that made her widely popular, but before that she stared in quite a few critically applauded movies.

She won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young emerging actor/actress at the Venice Film Festival in 2008 for her part in The Burning Plain. In 2009 she got the Los Angeles Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance for her role in The Poker House. Jennifer Lawrence’s portrayal of Ree in Winter's Bone is often viewed as her breakout performance for which she received critical acclaim and her first Oscar nomination. Another part that got her a lot of attention was the one in the 2011 X-Men: First Class (she was Raven Darkhölme / Mystique).

In 2012 she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

After proving her talent in Winter’s Bone she actually had problems getting roles because, apparently, she was not seen as a feminine character and basically didn’t have enough sex appeal. Can you believe that? 

It was then that she decided to play Hollywood at its own game and did a steamy bikini photo shoot in Esquire magazine.
This move was well thought and came with the expected side of criticism but had the desired result: ”A lot of people said, ‘Oh, now we have a great actress come along and she’s showing her boobs.’ But that’s exactly what I had to do so I could keep working. Honestly, that photo shoot is what helped me get ‘X-Men” she said in an interview.

That being said Jennifer Lawrence movies are always carefully chosen as she lives by this quote: “There are actresses who build themselves, and then there are actresses who are built by others. I want to build myself.”

In 2011 she got the offer to play Katniss Everdeen in the highly anticipated The Hunger Games. I was a huge fan of the books (remember this article) before the movie came out and, unlike many other times, I wasn’t disappointed. The sequel (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) is still filming and will premier sometime this year.

Going back to Jennifer and the Hunger Games part - she took three days to accept it because she was intimidated by the size of the movie and what it might mean in the long run. In order to prepare for this role she underwent extensive training including archery, rock and tree climbing, running, Pilates, combat, yoga and a lot of other workouts. She even owns her own bow and arrow. The movie was a huge success, setting the record for the third-largest opening weekend of all time with $152.5 million in three days. She became the highest paid action heroine ever. 

What I did not understand at the time was all the controversy regarding her weight/size. Many mentioned that Jennifer was a little too thick to play Katniss. Manohla Dargis from the New York Times said: “A few years ago Ms. Lawrence might have looked hungry enough to play Katniss, but now, at 21, her seductive, womanly figure makes a bad fit for a dystopian fantasy about a people starved into submission”. Also Todd McCarthy from The Hollywood Reporter said this Jennifer’s body was “lingering baby fat.”

I get that this points of view came from the desire to respect Suzanne Collins‘s character one hundred percent (in the books Katniss is described as being painfully thin), but they could have said it in a classier manner than referring to her as being fat.
For God sake, Jennifer Lawrence is 5 ft 9 (175 cm) tall and around 130 pounds (59 kg) which is pretty much perfect!

I really don’t get why people tend to get stuck on silly details when the really important things are left behind. That’s Hollywood for you!

She just won a Golden Globe for her part in 'Silver Linings Playbook' (Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical) and has been nominated for an Oscar for the same role. She’s a favorite going into awards season and got this part after auditioning over Skype.
And  having just seen the Silver Linings Playbook I can understand why - she's absolutely amazing and so is mister Bradley Cooper who's talent, I admit, I underestimated till now. Big mistake as they are both terrific in this little movie who succeeds a very rare thing - to talk about a very serious problem (mental health) in a light way but without making fun of it. It reminded me of Juno that way!
Jennifer Lawrence looks absolutely gorgeous in the movie and not too young either - she's 22, Bradley is 38 but I never once thought about the 16 years gap between them watching it.

  Jennifer Lawrence in her amazing Dior Haute Couture gown, Brian Atwood shoes, Chopard jewelry, and a Ferragamo clutch on the Golden Globes red carpet stealing the show without even trying!

Just to clarify things – when she started her speech as the Golden Globe winner for Best Actress with the words: "What does it say? I beat Meryl!” she was quoting Bette Midler in the comedy “The First Wives Club” (1996) and wasn’t dissing Meryl Streep whom she adores.

The funny thing is the one who didn’t get it (big surprise here) and started all the controversy on Twitter was Lindsay Lohan (her tweet -“No1 should ever mess with a legend such as Meryl Streep”) proving once again she’s brain dead. Meryl Streep wasn't even there so that really wouldn’t have made sense.

Jennifer Lawrence explained the whole thing while hosting Saturday Night Live a few days ago and delivered a few other skits and a funny monologue where she "trashed" all four of her fellow Best Actress Oscar nominees: Jessica Chastain, Naomi Watts, Emmanuelle Riva and Quvenzhane Wallis.

I loved this girl ever since she admitted being a couch potato and loving TV shows way too much. It’s like she was talking about me!:)))) She also said (in an interview to Marie Claire South Africa) that she would rather stay on the couch all day than hit the gym or go out partying (Amen to that sister!): "I don't like going out that much. I'm kind of an old lady. After it's 11, I'm like, 'Don't these kids ever get tired?' When I'm out, I think about my couch. Like, 'It would be awesome to be on it right now. I bet there's an episode of 'Dance Moms' on. Am I missing a new episode of 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians?' "I'm just stressed by the idea of missing them." 

She totally had me when she added that her idea of a good time is spending time with her friends in her apartment eating junk food: "I like people to come over to my place. It's like a reality TV show cave. I just learned how to work TiVO. That changed my life”.

As for her personal life, she just brook up (this month) with British actor Nicholas Hoult (you may remember him from Skins, A Single Man, About a Boy), after two years of dating. 

 Other interesting facts about Jennifer:

• She is close friends with Lily Collins
• She is the only girl to be born on the Lawrence side of the family in fifty years
• She appeared in the music video The Mess I Made by the band Parachute
• She refuses to have a twitter or a Facebook account
• Rolling Stone Magazine named her ‘America’s kick-ass sweetheart’
• In October 2012 she was announced as the new face of Dior
• She ranked #1 on AskMen's list of Top 99 Most Desirable Women for 2013 
• She's hilariously referred as JLaw by press, fans and bloggers

The rare thing that Jennifer has and that many other in Hollywood lack completely, is the fact she seems and behaves like a real human being, not a movie star. She still has that down to earth, relatable personality that makes you feel happiness when she succeeds rather then envy, you genuinely root for her and hope she does well. That’s why I’m pretty sure her career will be more than one hit wonder and she will be one of those actresses that can stay in the limelight for a long time.

Photos: 1, 2.

 So, have you seen any of here movies? How do you feel about Jennifer Lawrence?