Jennifer Lawrence

by Nadia Cohen

  Ultimately, he said he saw the two stars as foes that turn into friends, rather than straight-up allies in the beginning. The Liars have to earn their trust, after all, and then they can all team up. ‘Bringing them in, the conflict would be more fun than having them as allies to start,’ he explained. ‘And then they become allies. It would start as a conflict and then change.’

  In fact, he said he was so excited by the idea that he wanted to pitch it to the show’s creator, Marlene King: ‘See what you’re doing now? Now I’m all into this and I’m going to get off the phone and go, “Marlene! Let’s get Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lawrence on the show!”’

  Yet another of Jennifer’s Hunger Games co-stars, British actor Toby Jones, has also told how inspiring he found working with her. ‘I’ve worked with Jennifer on other films and it’s so interesting because she’s such a smart, clever actress,’ he said. ‘You’d think there would be a danger of it swamping her but it never does.’

  Megan Fox also loves the candid and goofy actress, labelling Jen a ‘fearless female’.

  ‘I definitely think she’s ruling the world right now,’ she told the Daily News.

  And Academy Award-winning French star Marion Cotillard has enjoyed hanging out with the ‘fun’ star too – together they have been muses for Dior. When asked by Stylist magazine who makes her laugh the most right now, Marion replied: ‘Will Ferrell! My friends. I have very, very funny friends. They make me laugh because I laugh so hard. Oh, and Jennifer Lawrence. Yeah, that’s a good list.

  ‘I have a Dior dinner, which I’m looking forward to because they’re amazing, funny people. And Jennifer Lawrence will be there so I’m going to have a lot of fun.’

  Patrick Stewart has nothing but praise for her, either. The Star Trek veteran has worked with an endless number of talented actors and actresses over the years. With a lengthy résumé, and notable connections, Stewart has had the opportunity to work with pretty much anyone he pleases. But while promoting his film, Match (2015), the actor was asked who he would most like to collaborate with in the future, and he chose Jennifer because of her brilliant sense of humour.

  He saw her in action when the pair starred alongside each other in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but they never actually got to work together since Stewart’s character lived in the future time of the film, while Jennifer’s existed in the past. Although they never shared a scene, he was still very impressed by what he saw.

  In an Entertainment Weekly question and answer session on Facebook, Stewart said: ‘I’d like to collaborate with Jennifer Lawrence. I think she’s brilliant, with a great sense of humour, and quite good looking.’

  WWE Superstar Seth Rollins also has a crush on Jennifer and would like to film some romantic scenes with her. The famous wrestler said he enjoyed watching her in The Hunger Games franchise, and would love to follow in the footsteps of his WWE alumni Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Dave Bautista – who had recently been cast as henchman Mr Hinx in the new James Bond movie Spectre – and make the move into Hollywood, if it meant he would get the chance to work with Jennifer.

  Rollins said: ‘If the opportunity presents itself to go into acting, I definitely wouldn’t turn it down. I wouldn’t mind doing some romantic scenes with some beautiful leading ladies.

  ‘Man, who is my favourite? That’s a tough one, man, there are so many wonderful and beautiful leading ladies, but I’d say Jennifer Lawrence. She’s looking mighty good in The Hunger Games trilogy. We’ll see if that can happen.’

  Project Runway champion Dmitry Sholokhov declared after winning the hit TV show in April 2015 that his dream would be to dress Jennifer. ‘I’d love to dress Jennifer Lawrence, Tilda Swinton and Angelina Jolie,’ he told Hollywood Life. ‘Those particular celebrities have a very particular style, strong aesthetics, and it’s interesting to work with women who are not afraid to take risks and not afraid to be different.’

  It was even suggested that Prince Harry wanted to date Jennifer, but she turned down the chance to possibly become a member of the British Royal family. Apparently, when Jennifer was in London promoting Mockingjay – Part 1 in November 2014, Harry tried to use his illustrious position to land a date.

  Life and Style magazine reported: ‘Harry made his aide invite her out to dinner and coupled it with an invite for her to see Kensington Palace.’

  But it later emerged that Jennifer was not interested and politely turned Harry’s invitation down.

  Not everybody loves Jennifer with quite so much enthusiasm, though. Actor, writer and director Ethan Hawke has said he believes her career peaked way too early. And he thinks that winning an Oscar at such a young age would only work against her.

  He does not think that landing at the top of Forbes’ list of bankable stars of 2014 is something to rejoice about either. ‘I feel sorry for a young actress like Jennifer Lawrence who gets so much success out of the gate, because how are you supposed to develop an appropriate work ethic? How do you push yourself to be better when you get an Oscar for buying breakfast in the morning?’ he told The Daily Beast, adding that early success can have a negative effect on a person’s work ethic and motivation.

  Hawke quoted a Tennessee Williams’ essay called ‘The Catastrophe of Success’, explaining that failure and success can both turn out to be negative experiences – but failure can fuel a person to be better, while success might ultimately drown them.

  He went on to say that it is the way Hollywood runs as a whole that’s the problem. In his view the industry has a culture that decides when something is brilliant, even though it may not be.

  Actress Chloë Sevigny also admitted that she is not among Jennifer’s huge army of fans, either. In an interview with V magazine in March 2015, she slammed her as annoying and crass.

  ‘I love when a movie star is a great movie star,’ Sevigny explained. ‘I think Angelina is a great movie star. I like Emma Stone. Whenever she’s herself, she’s really cute. Jennifer Lawrence I find annoying. Too crass.’

  The star of The Kids added: ‘I’m afraid that maybe people think there’s more personality than acting ability. So much is about marketing and selling the product.

  ‘They’ll have a really peppy funny girl on the talk show rounds, and everybody adores her and loves her and wants to be her or fuck her, and then so many more people want to watch the movie of the TV show. I understand that star quality, how much value that carries.’

  Despite the harsh criticism, Jennifer resisted sinking into a slanging match with her critics, preferring to remain silent on the matter, as she so often does – despite being urged to retort!

  Regardless of praise or condemnation, she does her best to ignore the majority of public opinion and relies instead on her close-knit family and trusted friends to keep her feet on the ground and tell her the truth: ‘I tell my friends to slap me if they ever think I’m getting full of myself!’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  LOVE IS IN THE AIR

  Since becoming world famous, Jennifer has found her love life very firmly under the spotlight, with her every move analysed, dissected, discussed and critiqued just as much – if not more – than her movie roles.

  In 2011 she started dating British actor Nicholas Hoult, who first found fame as the nerdy kid who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Hugh Grant’s carefree bachelor character in About a Boy (2002). Jennifer and Nicholas met on the set of X-Men: First Class in 2010, where he played the character Beast, and sparks flew as soon as they were introduced. Rumours about the nature of their close friendship began to swirl, and the romance was confirmed when they went public for the first time by attending the Screen Actors Guild Awards as a couple at the start of 2011.

  While they tried to keep a low profile, the pair found it hard to hide their true feelings. In one interview Nicholas described Jennifer as ‘special’ and she in turn happened to mention how good-looking she thought he was, while in another interview he talked about how down to earth he felt Jennifer had stayed, despite
her stellar career. He went on to say that dating her meant he had less privacy, but otherwise his life remained unchanged.

  Although Jennifer had been linked many times to her Hunger Games co-star Josh Hutcherson, and the two friends admitted they did love each other, they insisted they were actually more like ‘brother and sister’ and there was no romantic connection between them.

  Within months of dating, there were suggestions that Nicholas had proposed to Jennifer, but when asked to confirm rumours of an engagement, Jennifer told Marie Claire magazine: ‘We’re so young that it would almost be like if we lived in the same city, what would happen? We’d be living together.

  ‘At least this way he’s in the same boat as I am: We can go out and have our own lives and know that we have each other.

  ‘When we’re busy, we agree to mutually ignore each other. Not completely, but neither of us gets mad when the other doesn’t text back or call. Life’s super busy. Obviously you know what they’re doing, and you trust them.’

  Although they spent much of their relationship apart, due to the demands of hectic filming schedules, the pair managed to enjoy a couple of years together until they appeared to have split up in January 2013.

  At the timem a source told Us Weekly magazine: ‘They just weren’t together a lot, her life is a whirlwind. It just got to be too hard for now.’

  Nicholas was then spotted out with Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, actress and model Riley Keough, while at a nightclub in New York City, and they appeared to be casually dating until May 2013.

  But Jennifer seemed to be taking the split from her first serious boyfriend very much in her stride, and a source revealed that their break-up had been extremely amicable. ‘They spent a lot of time apart because of work and it was difficult on their relationship. It was a mutual split. There was no scandal, no cheating,’ a close pal of the duo exclusively told Radar. ‘The distance was just too much. It put a strain on the relationship and it just wasn’t working anymore.’

  But Riley seemed to be out of the picture when Jennifer and Nicholas were reunited in June 2013. They were thrown back together as they were working alongside one another on the X-Men sequel, Days of Future Past. To many it appeared as if their brief separation was a distant memory as they were spotted at the cinema together, as well as enjoying romantic lunch dates in their trailers and the two of them even went on a trip to an amusement park during a rare day off.

  Jennifer and Nicholas were also seen out and about with their co-stars. They joined James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and director Bryan Singer at the Canadian Grand Prix, and enjoyed a movie double date with Hugh Jackman and his wife, actress and producer Deborra-Lee Furness.

  McAvoy is a huge fan of Jennifer’s, and when he picked up an Empire award for Best Sci-Fi Fantasy in March 2015, he joked that she had taken the spotlight from him because of her skimpy costume. ‘I’d like to thank Jennifer Lawrence’s wonderful blue hue and naked body for ensuring I didn’t even feature in that clip,’ joked the British actor.

  Meanwhile, with their romance very much back on, Jennifer and Nicholas were also spotted at an HBO boxing event, and it seemed that they were delighted to be a couple again.

  Jennifer confirmed they were back together in a frank interview with fashion bible Vogue, saying: ‘He has absolutely no idea how good-looking he is. I think a lot of women and men hate me because of that.’ She also joked that they had previously split up over his sloppy attitude to cleaning. ‘He would never wring sponges out,’ Jennifer explained. ‘We were in the kitchen once, and I picked up the sponge, and it was soapy and wet, and I was like, “See? These are the kinds of things that make me think we are never going to work.”’

  Nevertheless, later that year Nicholas took Jennifer on holiday to Britain to meet his family. His sister Clarista revealed that she was impressed by how down to earth, lovely and easy to talk to Jennifer appeared to be during the visit. ‘Jen is lovely. She’s really easy to talk to,’ she told Heat magazine. ‘She’s really family-orientated, so she fitted in well with us. She doesn’t seem like a Hollywood type, she just mucked in.

  ‘We’re a very unglam family. In our house, if you want a drink, you get it yourself.’

  Jennifer spent some of Christmas 2013 with Nicholas and his loved ones, but rather than chatting about her upcoming movies or how she had just been nominated for an Oscar for American Hustle, the star preferred to be much more low-key. She enjoyed lunch at a local pub and settled down with the Hoult family to watch Christmas television shows. She also apparently helped Nicholas’s father Roger make a chicken pie, and baked some cakes.

  But reports that the couple were making plans to settle down in Britain by buying a house there together turned out to be false. It was claimed that Jennifer and Nicholas were planning to invest in some property in the English countryside, which they had apparently viewed while visiting over the Christmas holidays.

  However, Clarista insisted the pair were a long way from investing in property. Of a home the actor had recently bought in London, she said: ‘It’s Nick’s house, they’re not buying it together. It’s his first house, he’s very excited. He’s getting furniture from IKEA.

  ‘They’re just a normal couple – they get on really well. They see each other as much as possible and they Skype and FaceTime. She’s just really chilled and normal.’

  But Clarista suggested that Jennifer might have found Nicholas’s family life in Wokingham, Berkshire, a little quiet. She added: ‘We don’t drink alcohol at home – it’s orange squash, that’s what she had to be happy with. My mum doesn’t drink, so it was how we were brought up. There’s no vintage wines or anything like that with dinner. Jen went to the local pub instead for a drink.

  ‘Jen just says what she feels and we’re a bit more reserved as a family,’ she added.

  Nicholas appeared delighted to be by Jennifer’s side to support her at the Golden Globes in January 2014, where she picked up the Best Supporting Actress prize for American Hustle. He cheered her on at the ceremony, and Jennifer later described how they had played games with a friend’s child while getting ready for the show. ‘My stylist Rachel [Zoe] brought over her adorable son, Skylar, and we played “tickle monster” for a while,’ Jennifer said about her typically chilled-out preparations for the awards. ‘I had my friends and family come over, too, so it was like a party, which is always really fun.’

  Throughout their relationship there were frequent rumours that the couple were planning to marry, and they emerged publicly again in November 2013 when Jennifer was spotted wearing a new ring on her left hand during a press event for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. And in April 2014 she was seen wearing a turquoise ring while out with Nicholas. She was still wearing it on a trip to London, but later denied any wedding plans, and the couple broke up again in the summer of 2014, once more blaming their hectic schedules. And this time the romance seemed to be over for good, according to reports that the on-again, off-again couple had no choice but to part ways because of the demands of their respective careers.

  A source told E! News: ‘They spent a lot of time apart because of work and it was difficult on their relationship.’

  It was not long before Nicholas appeared to have picked up the pieces and was dating again – he was spotted having lunch with Twilight star Kristen Stewart at Daiwa in Tsukiji Fish Market in Los Angeles, and a source explained: ‘Nick has been dating several girls for the past few weeks. But he and Jennifer have been broken up longer than people realise.’

  According to the Daily Star, he and Kristen met while filming their new science fiction movie Equals in Japan, just as his relationship with Jennifer was crumbling. Although they had always kept typically tight-lipped about any suggestion of romance, a source told the newspaper that behind closed doors, the new relationship was official: ‘Nick is besotted with Kristen. They’re a match made in heaven, as they’re both anti-fame and share a very strong work ethic.

  ‘Almost as soon as Jennifer
told Nick it was over between them, he began seeing Kristen. But they were both worried about making the news public. For one thing, they’re private at the best of times, but they also didn’t want people thinking there was any overlap in their relationships.’

  Kristen and Nicholas spent a great deal of quality time together, both on and off the set. ‘Kristen and Nicholas have really connected with each other on so many levels,’ an insider told HollywoodLife.com. ‘They really get each other [with] their wacky sense of humour. They both basically bonded over pranks and pachinko — a really fun kind of arcade game in Japan.

  ‘He brings out her silly self and they just spend a lot of time laughing together and pulling pranks on the cast and crew members. They’ve become super-tight and it’s been healing for both of them to have someone to really lean on,’ the source added.

  Since all the stars involved are notoriously private, few details were ever confirmed. Some sources say that Nicholas’s heart was broken by Jennifer, and his romance with Kristen was little more than a rebound fling. Celeb Dirty Laundry suggested Kristen hated Jennifer for that reason, and Life & Style claimed that Nicholas was still in love with Jennifer. An insider reportedly told the magazine that Jennifer was still the love of his life, and they would be getting back together, making any new relationship impossible.

  It also emerged that Kristen was only dating Nicholas to get back at her former boyfriend and Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, who had also moved on and was now in a relationship with British singer-songwriter FKA Twigs, better known as Tahliah Barnett.

  While Jennifer was not short of men wanting to date her, and friends said she was not in a hurry to jump into another relationship because she was too busy with work, it was only a matter of weeks before she was first linked to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.