by Nadia Cohen
But Jennifer rarely regrets sharing her stories, however personal or embarrassing they might be. ‘If you’re having conversations with people, you don’t want them to remember you as the girl with the tits,’ she told the Telegraph. ‘You want them to pay attention to what you’re saying.’
And she revealed in Interview magazine: ‘I picked up an issue of Cosmopolitan the other day that had tips for job interviews, because I was like, “I need to get better at interviews.”
‘The article was basically about how to get someone not to hate you in twenty minutes. Every single thing they told you not to do, I was like, “I do that every day.”’
As she had shown when she made that ill-judged remark about beating Meryl Streep to scoop a prestigious award, Jennifer herself gets as star-struck as the rest of us. She was even too embarrassed to look at Homeland star Damian Lewis when she bumped into him at a red-carpet event, and was reduced to giggles after they were introduced.
She has also admitted to following hunk actor John Stamos around a party, ‘like a perverted guy, checking out his ass’.
And while on the set for X-Men: Days of Future Past Jennifer was thrilled to meet another of her idols – since she is a huge Game of Thrones fan, she freaked out when meeting Peter Dinklage. She told Empire magazine that she lost her mind thinking about his character, Tyrion Lannister, and so when she saw him she wanted to fall to her knees and address him as they do in the show, as ‘My liege…’
She said that everyone on set was just as excited, especially when Dinklage walked past, chatting on his mobile phone, and they all said, ‘Oh my God, Tyrion Lannister is talking on a cellphone!’
Jennifer went on to tell Vanity Fair that although it might sound rather unlikely, she was ‘in love’ with sixty-seven-year-old Curb Your Enthusiasm star and Seinfeld co-creator Larry David. ‘I have been for a really long time,’ she said. ‘I worship Woody Allen, but I don’t feel it below the belt the way I do for Larry David.’
And he responded to her attentions, telling David Remnick at the New Yorker Festival that he was ‘flattered’ by her surprise crush on him. ‘It’s a shame that I’m about forty years older than she is,’ he said.
‘Maybe she’s referring to her knees [as below the belt],’ David joked. ‘I don’t think I could do it. On one hand it’s very flattering and on another hand, it’s kind of a shame in terms of timing.
‘I’d have fun watching the reality show of it, though,’ he added.
Actress Rosie Perez also weighed in, saying she understood Jennifer’s unexpected lust for the funnyman. ‘He’s odd, he’s weird, he’s crochety, he’s all those things and I love him,’ Rosie declared, before adding that she was shocked when she first heard what Jennifer had said. ‘Sorry, Larry, but when I first heard that I was like, “Are you kidding? Really? Come on, have you seen the man?” And then now that I’m working with him, I’m getting those same sensations that Jennifer Lawrence is having.
‘You get it because he’s a man who knows who he is, and that’s powerful and that’s attractive, and he’s funny and he’s intelligent. And he’s also – I know he’s going to hate me saying this – he’s a teddy bear.
‘He’s sweet and he’s kind and he’s generous and he doesn’t want anyone to know that, though.’
Jennifer has also recalled to Vanity Fair the first time she met pop power couple, rapper Jay-Z and singer Beyoncé, and how she was struck down with nerves because she likes them both so much: ‘Destiny’s Child was my first CD.’ she said. ‘I met Jay-Z and I was so embarrassed because you could see my knees bouncing. He was like, “Are you okay?” And I was like, “Yeah, sure, bye.” I mean they’re king and queen of America, or of music. And then Brad and Angelina are king and queen of movies, I think.
‘I’ve got to stop meeting people that I really love because I just make a fool of myself.
‘There are so many people that I just haven’t met. I saw Bill Murray once, and I was like, “I can’t even get started.”’
She has mentioned many more actors she has crushes on, but when asked who she most admired she had difficulty narrowing it down: ‘When I was young, I actually saw The Last Picture Show, and it was Jeff Bridges, but then there was also, like, Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains and the Lawrence brothers [Joey, Matthew, and Andrew].’
She also sent Taylor Swift a text message following her performance at the Country Music Awards 2013 that was ‘about six inches long’.
Jennifer is a die-hard fan of reality television shows too. She said: ‘Maybe my favourite is Dance Moms, but I do love my Real Housewives. But there’s also – there’s Doomsday Preppers. Hoarders is OK. I find it gets a little boring after a while, but it’s great.
‘I love Intervention, New York Housewives – and Beverly Hills, New Jersey, and Atlanta Housewives. I mean, I love them all, but Miami – oh, my God! Miami is really special.’
In an interview with talk-show host Jay Leno she told how she crashed her car while on location in Georgia because she thought she saw child pageant star Honey Boo Boo. She had spotted a ‘breast cancer parade’ and thought she saw the name Boo Boo painted on a float, and she was so excited at seeing Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson, star of Toddlers and Tiaras, that she ended up rear-ending the car in front of her.
It turned out that the float actually said ‘Boobs’.
Jennifer made the rather surprising confession that in her spare time she likes to watch episodes of E!’s hit show Keeping Up With The Kardashians: ‘I was watching the Kardashian girl getting divorced, and that’s a tragedy for anyone,’ she previously told Parade.
‘The Kardashians were just in Thailand, so that was a pretty big deal,’ she explained in an interview. ‘I’m catching up on all the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The Beverly Hills women have gotten a lot crazier lately. I thought there was no beating Atlanta or New Jersey.
‘I’m trying to stay up to speed on all the pointless gossip that goes on in Hollywood. To be honest, I don’t really leave my house a lot.
‘I have to find a life that isn’t work. But I suck at everything, I’m not good at anything else!’
As a result of her devotion to the show, Jennifer is a huge fan of reality TV star Kim Kardashian, who told E! how excited the actress was when they met: ‘I was in NYC and I ran into Jennifer Lawrence. We said “Hi” and walked into the elevator and as the doors were closing she screamed across the lobby, “I love your show!” We were laughing so hard.’
And the appreciation appears to be entirely mutual for when Kim’s half-sister Kendall Jenner was asked who she would like to see portraying her in a film about the famous family, she replied: ‘Jennifer Lawrence, because I am obsessed with her and I think she is the funniest person on planet Earth.’
Jennifer has never hidden her love for reality TV, and told Marie Claire South Africa how she indulges in binge-watching sessions when she gets time to herself, admitting: ‘After it’s eleven, 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. Reality TV is my silver lining. At the end of the day there’s probably nothing that makes me feel better than junk food and reality TV.
‘MTV sometimes plays them for, like, three hours,’ she added. ‘And that will just turn into my morning. Like, I’ll cancel shit.’
And Jennifer is not the only award-winning serious actor to admit to a trash TV addiction. In 2015, she quizzed Theory of Everything actor Eddie Redmayne on his favourite shows, for Interview magazine, and discovered that they have a lot in common: ‘I come home from trying to pretend to know about astronomy and physics all day and turn on The Real Housewives,’ he admitted to Jennifer.
‘I’ve been a closet lover of faux-reality TV since The Hills. It’s bad.’
‘I feel l
ike I’m going to cry,’ she responded. ‘We’re making a breakthrough.’
She then went on to tell Eddie about visiting Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant, Pump. ‘I went to Pump the other night to meet Lisa Vanderpump,’ she revealed. ‘I had her sign a bottle of vodka, and when she gave it to my friend who was with me at the Oscars, my friend said, “Jennifer, this is so much better than the Oscars!” We took so many pictures with her.’
Jennifer, a self-proclaimed Housewives fan, visited the LA restaurant unannounced and according to a source did not have a reservation.
‘When Lisa found out Jennifer was seated [unknowingly] outside on the patio, she graciously gave up her table and pink chair in the centre of the garden to Jennifer and her girlfriends, even though her dinner had just arrived,’ the source told Us Weekly.
‘The whole group was ecstatic because they are all fans of RHOBH,’ the insider added. ‘Lisa sent over complimentary bottles of her LVP Sangria and Vodka and even signed a bottle for Jennifer’s friend.’ Jennifer and her friends took photos with Lisa, her husband Ken and famous dog Giggy, captioning the images, ‘Team Lisa’. Another source told Us Weekly that the Oscar winner was sipping on Pumptini cocktails all night long.
And although she has millions of fans of her own, Jennifer tries not to let the constant flattery, praise and publicity go to her head: ‘I don’t really absorb any of that stuff because I don’t think it would be good for me,’ she said. ‘I love acting so I just show up for work and I film movies and I have to promote them, and then I go home. And that’s about it.’
Her adulation comes in many forms. While her Hunger Games character Katniss Everdeen may have twice survived the terrors of the bloodthirsty Arena in Panem, she herself has had to endure endless selfies with feverish fans. And it is not just the real-life Jennifer either – she has been bombarded with photo requests since making her debut at the famous Madame Tussauds Waxwork Museum in London.
The full-size wax model of Jennifer Lawrence in costume as District 12’s most famous daughter arrived to coincide with the third Hunger Games movie Mockingjay – Part 1’s release in UK cinemas in November 2014. The model was created in partnership with the studio behind the blockbuster science fiction saga.
‘We are hugely excited to have worked with Lionsgate to launch a Katniss wax figure following The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1,’ said a spokesperson for Madame Tussauds. ‘The figure is in its own film-specific backdrop, allowing our guests to get up close to Katniss and the beloved story of The Hunger Games, which we know they’ll love.’
Wearing her The Hunger Games: Catching Fire costume, complete with bow and quiver, Katniss became the latest icon to join the Madame Tussauds line-up, following the Benedict Cumberbatch wax figure revealed a month earlier. Further models of Jennifer as Everdeen were expected to be introduced at Madame Tussauds’ New York and Los Angeles sites.
Her hugely popular fictional character has inspired many extreme acts of devotion, including a woman winning a gold award at a national baking competition by entering a life-sized Jennifer Lawrence cake. Lara Clarke, from Walsall, won the award at the Cake International contest with her 5ft 10in creation. Ms Clarke had previously triumphed at the contest with a life-sized Johnny Depp cake, which made headlines around the world.
She said she found her second consecutive success ‘hugely exciting’.
Ms Clarke spent two and a half months working on the cakes ahead of the competition at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, and the Jennifer Lawrence sponge cake required 150 eggs, 10kg flour and 10kg butter.
When asked what she planned to enter next year, Clarke said she would need a ‘long lie down’ before she decided.
By this stage Jennifer was starting to get used to some of the more unusual acts of devotion carried out by her army of fans. In April 2015 an artist called Mateo Blanco created a unique portrait of the actress made out of 9,658 Planters peanuts. Commissioned by the Ripley Entertainment Corp in Orlando, Florida, the artwork measures 55 x 55 inches and took Blanco 400 hours to complete.
‘I love peanuts, so as soon as I began I ate, like, three or four peanuts for every one peanut I put in the portrait,’ he explained.
Ripley’s gave him two instructions: that the image must represent a Kentuckian and it must be baseball-related. Jennifer is from Louisville and peanuts are a popular snack at baseball games. Blanco glued the piece together, nut by nut, onto wooden boards.
The finished product was displayed in Ripley’s baseball-themed exhibit at the Louisville Slugger Museum, and the portrait was expected to travel around various ballparks to promote the display.
‘Mateo and his art are bigger than life,’ said Edward Mayer, Ripley’s vice president of exhibits and archives. ‘I truly had no idea what he could create to fill our criteria of having to be made from something associated with baseball. The end result is one of the most original pieces in our vast collection of unbelievable art.’
The peanut portrait of Jennifer was Blanco’s tenth piece for Ripley’s. Previous weird and wonderful works have been made of dog hair, sugar and balls of wool.
Meanwhile, a Californian artist called Noel Cruz also made headlines with his customised Katniss Everdeen doll, which fetched $2,500 on eBay.
Cruz, who is known for turning mass-produced figurines into lifelike one-of-a-kind creations, said he spent almost three straight days on this particular doll.
‘It was a gruelling stretch,’ he told the Daily News.
To modify the original Mattel doll he had to scale down the hair plugs, before going to work on the facial features, stripping the paint so he could change the shape of her eyes and adding other details with a tiny brush.
Eighteen bids were placed on the final product after it was listed on eBay.
While Katniss did sell it for a pretty penny, it is far from his biggest sale. A collector once paid $5,100 for an upgraded doll of Charlie’s Angel star Kate Jackson. And Cruz said he would be making more dolls to resemble Jennifer.
‘I’m thinking of commissioning someone to do the outfits,’ he revealed. ‘Maybe I will do one of her wearing the wedding dress from Catching Fire.
‘I don’t want to disappoint the fans out there,’ he continued, adding that it was a collector in the UK who placed the winning bid for the doll.
Another artist, David Lopera, designed a digitally edited plus-sized portrait of Jennifer, which went viral. He hit the headlines in February 2015 when he insisted that the actress, like all his subjects, looks better with more weight on her.
He sells his altered images of stars, including Katy Perry, Mila Kunis and even Frozen’s Princess Elsa, to men who prefer their women a little plumper. ‘Men are always writing to me asking if I can make their celebrities crushes look a bit fatter,’ the artist from Menorca revealed. ‘Jennifer Lawrence and Kim Kardashian are some of the most popular requests I get.
‘These women look much better when they’re overweight,’ he added. ‘Look at my pictures and you will see that big is beautiful. For example, Mila Kunis is much sexier with chunky thighs and a bulging belly that hangs around her waist.’
The artist has been playing around with Photoshop since he was at school. However, he only began this unusual money-making scheme after his altered image of Katy Perry went viral in 2014.
Lopera said: ‘I love Katy Perry but she would look much more sexy with a few extra pounds. So for my own pleasure, I manipulated her first album cover to make her look a bit chubby.
‘I uploaded it online and soon, men were messaging me with requests to Photoshop other stars to look flabby.’
A computer technician by day, he has since received more than 200 requests from men and women all over the world. Each work takes several days to complete.
‘Usually each manipulation takes a few days but there have been times when I’ve spent a whole week on just one,’ he added. Part of the reason for the lengthy production time is that client
s have very specific ideas about how they want the final result to look.
‘I know my clients want their fat celebs to look as realistic as possible,’ he explained. ‘Some even have an idea of how much they want them to weigh. I don’t stop until they look perfectly plump.’
Other extreme acts of adoration towards Jennifer have included that made by make-up artist Paolo Ballesteros, who managed to transform himself into an uncannily accurate version of his idol, using only eyeliner and contouring. After adding a hairpiece, Ballesteros was a dead ringer for the actress.
He explained how he basically just drew a portrait of Jennifer over his own face, and it stuck like that (apparently the nose is always the most difficult part). In an interview with the Huffington Post, Ballesteros explained: ‘My nose is smaller and shorter [than most celebrities]. It took me a while to figure out how to do it. By drawing new nostrils, it made my nose more pointy or bigger.’
He has also found fame thanks to his impressions of Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie and Michelle Obama, and has become a huge TV star in the Philippines.
Luckily, Jennifer remains unfazed by any of this and takes it all calmly in her stride as she becomes used to all kinds of unusual accolades. On National Beer Day, an unofficial US holiday, in April 2015, she topped the list of famous women that people would most like to have a beer with. The poll, which received more than 77,600 votes, asked voters not to focus on looks, but instead to consider various criteria when choosing their favourite celebrities, including those you would have the best conversation with, their likeability, things you would have in common, whether they had a fun personality, who was most down to earth and who would make the best drinking buddy.
Jennifer is well known for being able to laugh at herself, and certainly does not take bizarre polls and accolades too seriously, but she has admitted there are downsides to having to deal with such a devoted and die-hard fan base: “I used to be very personable and make eye contact and smile at people, and now all I do is look down. When I’m at dinner and one person after another keeps interrupting to take pictures, it’s like, “I can’t live like this!”’
