Jennifer Lawrence

by Nadia Cohen

  Those surveyed were also asked to name the famous selfie they would most like to recreate, with Ellen DeGeneres’ celebrated Oscar selfie – which of course included Jennifer, alongside the likes of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Kevin Spacey – coming out on top. Taken in February 2014, the famous photo got a record 779,295 re-tweets on Twitter in the first half hour alone, causing the social media site to temporarily crash.

  That selfie, which also featured Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep, was chosen ahead of Germany striker Lukas Podolski’s World Cup selfie of the German team all shirtless in the changing room following a match, and model Cara Delevingne’s ‘ugly’ shot in which she contorted her normally beautiful face by making goofy cross eyes and a turned-up pig nose!

  Jennifer has explained that her young fans would rather take a selfie than have an autograph, and according to statistics, the selfie is a still-growing craze, with an estimated 11 million eighteen- to thirty-year-olds posting selfies in 2014, making up more than a billion in total. The average person in that age group takes 100 selfies a year, posting at least one a week to social media.

  But the art of the selfie was dealt a blow in April 2015 when the organisers of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival tried to ban selfies on the red carpet, branding them ‘ridiculous and grotesque’. One organiser added: ‘Honestly, you’re never as ugly as on a selfie.’

  It’s no wonder, then, that the results show that the humble autograph no longer interests celebrity spotters, with over half of those asked (55 per cent) saying they would choose having a selfie with their favourite celebrity over anything else, with only 22 per cent saying they would ask for an autograph. A third of men said they would ask their celebrity crush on a date or for a kiss if they met them, while only 11 per cent of women said the same.

  On top of all this, Jennifer was so enduringly popular that she was named the most-searched-for celebrity of 2014 by Google. While many thought that reality star Kim Kardashian would top the poll, following her naked photo shoot for Paper magazine that was entitled ‘Break the Internet’, Jennifer was the surprise winner.

  And every time she tries out a new style or even gets a haircut, it makes headlines. In early 2014, when she had her trademark blonde mane cut into a stylish cropped pixie bob, photos were beamed around the world, and the look was immediately copied by thousands of women.

  Even Victoria’s Secret model Karlie Kloss confessed that she was jealous, and wished she could change her style as effortlessly as Jennifer. ‘I thought Jennifer Lawrence looked amazing when she cut her hair short. I’m always envious when anyone tries out a new style,’ she explained.

  Scores of celebrity admirers and professional critics appear utterly devoted to the actress, admiring every fashion choice and style selection she makes. And it seems Jennifer can only get more and more popular as she matures into a sophisticated young woman, gradually becoming ever more confident as she gets used to living this extraordinary life under the glare of the spotlight.

  CHAPTER TEN

  PLAYING THE FOOL

  Unlike most movie stars, who carefully stage-manage every word and deed to ensure a purely positive public perception, Jennifer does not seem to care about saying and doing the wrong thing. By messing up, telling embarrassing stories and often saying exactly what she thinks without a thought for the consequences, she has shown the world that she is still enchantingly natural and down to earth.

  Of course there are those who would argue that as she is now one of the most in-demand actresses in the world, nothing she says or does is accidental, and surely it must all be an act, but there is no doubt Jennifer loves to laugh at herself and seems to have barely changed since she first shot to fame with an Oscar nomination for her role in the low-budget indie flick Winter’s Bone in 2011.

  Since then she has become so notorious for her gaffes, trips, falls and photobombing that she even made a joke out of her quirky reputation when she had to make a speech at the Producers Guild Awards in January 2015. She had been asked to present Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer with the illustrious Milestone Award.

  The only problem was that – despite being a professional actress – Jennifer does not really like giving speeches due to what she describes as her ‘crippling anxiety’, which is why she normally turns down requests to make unscripted speeches.

  ‘When I heard it was for Feltheimer, I had to say yes,’ she explained, ‘because I just assumed that I was contractually obligated. When I found out that I wasn’t, I had already picked out this dress.’

  She then warned Feltheimer: ‘I know what you’re thinking, I’m going to totally mess this up – and you’re right.’

  The Academy Award-winning actress did not mess up, though. Instead she had the audience in stitches right from her opening remark about wishing she had thought to ask one of them for a Xanax to calm her nerves, and mentioning ‘the unbreakable bond between woman and couch’.

  She even managed to tease the studio head behind the wildly popular The Hunger Games movies. ‘Jon was charged to insure that Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games incredible trilogy of books was respectfully brought to life in four films and it was a large fucking failure!’ she joked. ‘I was so afraid of signing on to these movies a few years ago because something that size can make or break a career,’ she went on.

  ‘I put my trust in Lionsgate and they put their trust in me and now I think we have a strong and amazing relationship that I hope lasts until my career dies at thirty-five.’

  While that seems highly unlikely, if her career does peter out, Jennifer can undoubtedly make a living as a toastmaster. On set, she has a reputation for getting the giggles, no matter how serious the scene may be: ‘That’s not because I’m funny,’ she explained. ‘I’m just really immature and I can’t be serious for long or it kills me. Especially if we’re doing an emotional scene, I just can’t be serious.’

  In April 2015 she took part in an elaborate April Fool’s Day stunt to promote a revolutionary 1.5-second looping video site called Dips. Alongside big-name stars, including Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher, she filmed a short clip for the new start-up site, said to be worth a staggering $80 million, which shares ‘blink-of-an-eye’ clips hosted by Funny Or Die, a comedy video company founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. In her clip, Jennifer looked bedraggled and was seen answering a banana instead of a phone.

  Indeed she has become almost as famous for her sense of humour as her acting roles, and being able to laugh at herself. When asked in 2012 about the dance moves she would have to showcase in Silver Linings Playbook she said: ‘When I dance, I look like I’m a dad at a prom. I never grasped my limbs. Ever since puberty I’ve just kind of felt like we don’t understand each other.’

  Jennifer often pokes fun at her own looks too. She has been snapped combing her hair with a fork and sticking her finger up the nose of giant billboard photos of herself. In one red carpet interview she rearranged her strapless dress in an unladylike way, explaining: ‘I know, I have armpit fat, it’s OK, though. Armpit vagina, it’s awful! I see myself in all these cameras, it’s awful! I need to wear like horse shades so I can’t see anything.

  ‘So what dress are you wearing? Sorry, Dior! You asked me and all I talked about was vaginas!’

  She admits she can mess up in live interviews because she finds being on the red carpet so stressful. ‘Red carpets are so scary,’ she said. ‘I end up getting so nervous that I get hyper. So I go into interviews and I’m like, “I’m a Chihuahua! I’m shaking and peeing!” And then afterward, I’m like, “I just talked about peeing on the red carpet!”’

  Her friend Josh Hutcherson joked about her famous fall at the Oscars before he made his own debut at the ceremony, two years later. When it was suggested that he should have asked Jennifer for advice, considering how many times his co-star had attended the ceremony, he replied: ‘I don’t want to ask her any advice about the Oscars. I’m staying away from that train wreck, for sure.’

 
At unite4:good’s unite4:humanity gala in 2015, where he was honoured for his work with gay rights group, Straight But Not Narrow, Josh took Jennifer as his date, describing her as his best friend, and joked about her being much taller than him, saying: ‘I don’t have heels. I’m not busting out the heels for this one.’

  Josh and Jennifer have become known for their fun friendship – on the set of The Hunger Games he even nicknamed her Katpiss Neverclean because of the sweaty workouts she was forced to endure twice a day while filming to keep in shape for the role.

  But Josh told Vanity Fair they will always be close: ‘It’s been the most incredible experience making these movies. I’ve made friends that I’m going to have forever. Nothing is as bonding or as close an experience as filming a movie with someone. I’m going to miss that closeness, for sure.’

  He added that he, Jennifer and Liam have promised to reunite at least once every two years for a ‘group vacation lasting four to eight days’.

  As well as endearing her to a legion of fans, Jennifer’s good humour has earned her a somewhat varied selection of famous admirers too. She was left blushing when Hollywood legend Jack Nicholson congratulated her on scooping the Oscar. And Bradley Cooper told Press Association at the 58th BFI London Film Festival that he couldn’t have asked for a better co-star after they appeared in several films together, saying: ‘I’ve sort of hit the jackpot with being able to work with Jennifer Lawrence on Silver Linings Playbook. When I knew she was going to play this character, I was fully aware it was going to be comic.

  ‘Once she would breathe life into this character, it would become much more dimensional. It could be very easy to portray her as a stock character and there’s just not one moment where you don’t believe she’s a human being.’

  And he heaped more praise on his favourite co-star, adding: ‘She’s a wonderful, wonderful actress.

  ‘Her biggest asset is probably her level of relaxation when she acts, and because of that, it’s a very thrilling thing to be involved with as the partner of the scene.’

  Jennifer added that the thing they share most in common is their love of food: ‘We’re two of the biggest eaters in Hollywood!’ she admitted.

  But despite their relationship being described as strictly platonic, Bradley continued to gush about his co-star at the event, saying: ‘I respect her so much as a professional, as an actor, and I think she’s the best there is. I just learn from her. You always want to work with people who are better than you.’

  And making it clear that there is a solid connection between the two, Jennifer added: ‘And I feel the same way about him.’ She even playfully stroked her leading man’s cheek as he laughed and squinted while posing for pictures at the after-party.

  Jennifer has many other big-name admirers – she was even compared to Jesus and Joan of Arc by her Hunger Games co-star Donald Sutherland: ‘When I worked with her, I realised the child was a genius,’ he said at the premiere of Mockingjay Part 1. ‘She’s the right person at the right time in the sense of Joan of Arc or Jesus Christ, any genius, in that sense.

  ‘She has the ability as an actor to tell the truth out of the material, and that truth is immediately recognisable with everybody because it hits you in your heart, your solar plexus and your mind. And she has the genius of person to be not affected by all of this. She’s just a real girl.’

  Sutherland even compared Jennifer to legendary actor Sir Laurence Olivier, describing her as ‘an exquisite and brilliant actress’.

  But Jennifer is typically modest about all the praise lavished upon her, and is often humble enough to bring up the fact that she has never studied acting at all, and that her way of learning ‘method’ acting has been to simply watch people’s expressions and emotions, adding that she has always been fascinated by the reactions and feelings that others express around her. She has said: ‘Watching people is the best acting class you can take.’

  Another of Jennifer’s Hunger Games co-stars, Woody Harrelson, also praised her, saying that she has not allowed fame to go to her head, and has remained down to earth despite becoming the ‘biggest female star in the world’.

  Recalling the first time they ever met, Woody told Vanity Fair magazine: ‘She’d just done a movie, and people in the industry knew her, but she wasn’t really famous. And so I watched her grow into, amazingly, the biggest female star in the world.

  ‘And it’s staggering to me how much she’s been able to just hold on to her basic decency and her amazing, marvellous spirit. You know, it’s not terrible, people tell you you’re great; what’s terrible is when you start believing it. She never got fucked up.

  ‘She’s an amazing girl. She’s one of my favourite people on the planet, and I can’t imagine my life without her.’

  Woody has also told how he delights in the fact that his friend has no filter and never worries about censoring herself: ‘She’s just very forthcoming. It’s almost shocking how much she’ll say, you know. That’s super-fun, and also it’s shocking sometimes because it’s so on the edge,’ he added. ‘It’s like she doesn’t have a censor. I really love that in people. I guess there are some people I don’t love it in, but in her it’s wonderful.

  ‘When I think about the fact that I did turn down The Hunger Games at first and had to be talked into it by director Gary Ross, I think to myself the thing that I would miss more than anything – you know, certainly, I’d want to be a part of The Hunger Games just generally in the other aspects – but not getting to know Jen is just, like, inconceivable.’

  Jennifer made quite an impression the first time she met Harrelson: as she walked into his trailer, she looked over at his yoga exercise swing and said: ‘Hi Woody, is that a sex swing?’

  He added: ‘Jennifer doesn’t have a trace of arrogance. She’s not trying to put on any airs or be anyone she’s not. She’s the real deal.

  ‘She’s just this frickin’ amazing girl from Kentucky who hit it big.’

  Another Hunger Games co-star, teenage actress Willow Shields, also told how much she has enjoyed growing up with Jennifer Lawrence as her on-screen sister. ‘She’s pretty much an open book. She’s herself in interviews and she’s herself on red carpets, so it’s not like there is anything that surprising about her,’ said Willow. ‘I feel like some people just see the funny side of her, but she can be a very serious and sophisticated person, and I think that’s something a lot of people don’t know.’

  And when Willow appeared as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, she told how Jennifer admired her bravery, dancing in public. ‘I think everybody is like, “Where did this come from? Oh my God, you’re dancing,”’ Willow told E! News. ‘Like Jen, of course she was like, “Oh God, I would be so scared to do that.” They’re all very excited.’

  Willow went on to tell Access Hollywood how she feels she has grown up with Jennifer. ‘She’s awesome,’ said the young actress. ‘I started when I was ten. Now, I’m fourteen. We built this fantastic relationship. Each movie we grew closer, so we’re like sisters now and she’s so supportive of everything I do.

  ‘She told me to stay who I am. I think she knew that these films were going to just blow up and I didn’t yet. I was ten and I was totally unaware of what was going to happen, so for me I had no idea,’ Willow continued. ‘She was like, stay who you are. The only way you’re going to be successful in this industry is to kind of be humble and stay who you are because obviously they cast you for a reason.

  ‘She’s an inspiration to me. She’s never changed this entire series, which is the most incredible thing you can see. The way she stays so grounded and humble, it’s almost impossible for a lot of people to do that, so for me it’s inspirational,’ she added. ‘She’s such an inspiration for every young girl out there.’

  Jennifer’s other famous fans include Julianne Moore, who revealed how much they had laughed the first time she met her Hunger Games co-star: ‘She’s very funny. When I first met her, I was sitting in the make-up trailer, and our make-u
p artist was testing something, and Jennifer came in. I said, “Oh, let me get up.” She goes, “No, no, no. You sit there. And I’ll secretly resent you.”’

  Meanwhile, when Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe was asked which actors he admires said: ‘George Clooney, Jennifer Lawrence, I just think they’d be really cool. Paul Rudd, I met him and was like, “You’re awesome!” I just want to work with people you can get on with, and you have a good rapport with, and those are definitely some of them.’

  And the feeling is mutual. Jennifer described the first time she met Daniel: ‘I screamed at him the first time that I met him.’

  And he is not the only one longing to work alongside Jennifer. The team behind the hugely popular US teen drama Pretty Little Liars – which has a very intense and dedicated army of fans who tweet and talk about the plot twists more than almost any other show – would like to get Jennifer on board.

  Although the complicated storylines and near-death experiences keep the viewing figures high and ensure audiences stay loyal, the show’s breakout star, Keegan Allen (Toby Cavanaugh), is keen to attract high-profile guest stars, and described Jennifer as an alpha female: ‘It would be really cool to work with Jennifer Lawrence. I’m so often reminded of Jennifer Lawrence by Troian [Bellisario, who plays Spencer]. She feels like that alpha female presence – I mean, all the girls are very alpha female – and it would be cool to have her come on the show. Or even Taylor Swift! There’s an element of that alpha female in the vibe I get from both of those girls, and our fan base would love that. But it would also be cool to see their take on a character coming into that world.’

  Allen even admitted he had a plot line mapped out if ever he managed to convince Jennifer to make the move into TV drama: ‘I feel like Jennifer Lawrence could be an opposing debate team member against Spencer and be really, really good at it, and Spencer gets freaked out a bit because this girl is smart and competing to get into some crazy Ivy League college or something,’ he added excitedly. ‘And then Taylor Swift’s character could be this lacrosse-playing, super-athletic cool girl that comes in and can play guitar as well. She makes Aria really jealous or something.’