Little-Known Facts About Jennifer Lawrence

November 6, 2023 | Miles Brucker

Little-Known Facts About Jennifer Lawrence


“Why can’t I say anything normal?” – Jennifer Lawrence

America’s foul-mouthed and eminently quotable sweetheart, Jennifer Lawrence burst onto the scene with an incendiary turn in the indie film “Winter’s Bone,” before taking on one of the biggest roles of anyone’s career as Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games trilogy. With one Oscar win already under her belt for “Silver Linings Playbook,” she is going to be wowing audiences for years to come.

Here are a few things you might not have known about the girl on fire: Jennifer Lawrence.


1. Improving On Perfection

Her middle name is Shrader. As if she couldn’t get any hotter.

Jenniferlawrence-Msn

2. Doesn’t Play Well With Others

She was a tomboy growing up and, when she was in preschool, she wasn’t allowed to play with the other girls because she was “too rough".

Jennifer Lawrence facts Flickr, Gage Skidmore

3. Sports Night in America

She played field hockey, softball, and basketball in high school. The latter was on the boys’ team that her dad coached. If the WNBA needs a new starting center, they know where to look.

Jennifer Lawrence factsFlickr, Jennifer Lawrence Films

4. My Little Pony

Her family owned a horse farm when she was growing up and her first horse was a pony named Muffin.

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

5. I’m Gonna Live Forever

“I always knew,” she said, “that I was going to be famous. I honest to God don’t know how else to describe it. I used to lie in bed and wonder, ‘Am I going to be a local TV person? Am I going to a motivational speaker?’” Maybe she will be. Maybe she will.

Jennifer Lawrence facts Getty Images

6. What a Relief

She crowned herself the “World’s Fastest Pee-er". It’s a shame they don’t give out Oscars for that.

Jennifer Lawrence factsShutterstock

7. Barely Street Permissible

She was discovered on the street in New York at the age of fourteen when a stranger asked to take her picture and took her mother’s phone number. They called the next day to do a screen test which is probably the most benign of all the possible outcomes of such a scenario.

Jennifer Lawrence factsShutterstock

8. Make Believe

Lawrence has never formally trained as an actress nor been in professional theater. She relies on this weird thing she calls “imagination".

Jennifer Lawrence facts Getty Images

9. Scene Thief

She worked for three years on the TBS series "The Bill Engvall Show" where critics felt she dominated every scene. To be fair, that’s like stealing candy from a baby.

Jennifer Lawrence factsFlikr, Jennifer Lawrence Films

10. Acting Healthy

Her parents originally didn’t her to become an actress until they visited her on set and saw how happy she was. Perhaps they let her do it because they realized this was way cheaper than therapy.

Jennifer Lawrence facts Getty Images

11. If at First You Don’t Succeed

She auditioned for the roles of Bella Swan in “Twilight” and Jules in “Superbad". She didn’t get either and the roles went to unknown actresses Kristen Stewart and Emma Stone.

The Twilight Series factsThe Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (1) (2011), Summit Entertainment

12. Survivor

To prepare for her role in “Winter’s Bone,” Lawrence lived with the Ozarks family on which the story was based and learned how to fight, chop wood, and skin squirrels. All useful skills for the impending apocalypse.

Jennifer Lawrence factsWinter

13. Fountain of Youth

She was the third youngest ever nominee for an Academy Award for Actress in a Lead Role for her part in “Winter’s Bone". The only two younger were Keisha Castle-Hughes for “Whale Rider” and Quvenzhane Wiallis for “Beasts of the Southern Wild".

Jennifer Lawrence facts Getty Images

14. Cut. It. Out

Lawrence says that John Stamos is one of the celebrities she was most excited to meet. When they finally did meet, she kept calling him “Uncle Jesse” and was being such a fangirl that eventually Stamos asked if she was on shrooms.

Jennifer Lawrence facts Getty Images

15. You Kiss Your Mother with that Mouth?

There was a swear jar on the set of the first “Hunger Games” film and Lawrence contributed at least half because, according to director Gary Ross, she “swears like a sailor". Which, if we’re being honest, is quite a stereotype for sailors. There are definitely polite sailors out there.

Jennifer Lawrence factsShutterstock

16. A Regular Cupid

To prepare for her role as Katniss Everdeen, she trained with an Olympic archer from Georgia (the country, not the state).

Archery shooting target placed on a green fieldPatryk Kosmider, Shutterstock

17. Hazard Pay

Thinking they were burglars, she almost shot some guys who were working on her patio with that bow and arrow. That would have been wonderful promo for the film.

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

18. First Impressions

The first sentence Lawrence ever spoke to Woody Harrelson was, "Hi Woody, I'm J - is that a piece of intimate adult equipment?" We’re not going to provide context because it’s way funnier that way.

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

19. Take That Lara Croft!

For her role as Katniss Everdeen, Lawrence is the highest grossing action heroine in Hollywood history.

Jennifer Lawrence factsThe Hunger Games (2012), Lionsgate

20. She’s Blue

To play the shapeshifting blue mutant Mystique in “X-Men: First Class”, Lawrence spent eight hours getting into makeup and two getting back out.

Jennifer Lawrence factsX-Men: First Class (2011), Twentieth Century Fox

21. She Blue It

By the end of the production, she had to fight to get her security deposit back on her Notting Hill apartment because she’d turned the bathtub blue.

Jennifer Lawrence factsX-Men: First Class (2011), Twentieth Century Fox

22. Shapeshifting Shapeshifter Costume

For the subsequent X-Men movies, they did away with the extensive makeup and changed it to a prosthetic suit which both saved time and allowed Lawrence to be more comfortable...and not lose any more security deposits.

Jennifer Lawrence factsX-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Twentieth Century Fox

23. Sweetheart Honey Buns

In 2012, Lawrence got into a car accident because she thought she saw Honey Boo-Boo in a parade in Georgia (the state, not the country). It was actually a parade for cancer awareness and the floats said "Nudge-Nudge" instead of "Boo-Boo". To be fair, either one would have done the trick.

Jennifer Lawrence factsShutterstock

24. Twinsies

Anne Hathaway was originally cast in Silver Lining Playbooks and stepped away over “creative differences". Jennifer Lawrence stepped into the role and won an Oscar. Coincidentally, Anne Hathaway also won an Oscar that same year for Best Supporting Actress.

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

25. Acting Her Age

“Silver Linings Playbook” director David O. Russell considered Lawrence to be too young for the role, but she managed to convince him otherwise over Skype.

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

26. She Would Have Made a Terrible Boy Scout

Because Lawrence doesn’t do a lot of preparation for her roles, her co-workers are often taken aback by her nonchalance. Russell recalls, “I remember Bradley Cooper and I saying, ‘Is this kid even paying attention?’ Because she's goofing around, eating my potato chips, or cracking jokes about flatulence. She’s like a lot of great athletes… Jen stays loose. And then she hits a three-point shot from some ridiculous distance and we all just look at each other and go, ‘Wow.’” Must have been all that basketball when she was a kid.

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

27. Red Carpet Antics

Lawrence tripped at the Oscars. Twice. Once on her way up to the stage and again the next year on the red carpet. She also accidentally kissed Natalie Dormer during a red carpet interview. She sure knows how to make the red carpet exciting.

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

28. What?

When promoting Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence told the press, "I went deaf in one ear for months. . . . But that wasn’t actually physically challenging. It was just ear challenging because I got all of these ear infections from the diving and the water and all of that stuff. And then a jet from one of the cornucopia scenes punctured my eardrum". You'd think they could find some earplug money in the budget...

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

29. Grounded

“Not to sound rude, but acting is stupid,” Lawrence has said. “Everybody’s like, ‘How can you remain with a level head?’ And I’m like, ‘Why would I ever get cocky? I’m not saving anybody’s life. There are doctors who save lives and firemen who run into burning buildings. I’m making movies. It’s stupid". She’s not wrong. But we’re glad she does it.

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

30. Choose Your Own Adventure

A tabloid was going to publish a story that she was having an affair with one of her co-stars, but her publicist got wind of it first. Lawrence called them and was allowed to choose which one of her co-stars she was involved with. She went with Bradley Cooper. Solid choice.

Jennifer Lawrence factsGetty Images

 

Sources: 1 2 3


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