“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.
Jennifer Lawrence Facts
1. Improving on Perfection
Her middle name is Shrader. As if she couldn’t get any hotter.
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.”
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.
4. My Little Pony
Her family owned a horse farm when she was growing up and her first horse was a pony named Muffin.
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.
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.
7. Barely Street Legal
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.
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.”
9. Scene Thief
She worked for three years on the TBS series “The Bill Engvall Show” where critics felt she stole every scene. To be fair, that’s like stealing candy from a baby.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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).
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.
18. First Impressions
The first sentence Lawrence ever said to Woody Harrelson was, “Hi Woody, I’m J – is that a sex swing?” We’re not going to provide context because it’s way funnier that way.
19. Take That Lara Croft!
For her role as Katniss Everdeen, Lawrence is the highest grossing action heroine in Hollywood history.
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.
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.
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.
23. Honey Boob-Boobs
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 breast cancer and the floats said “boobs” instead of “Boo-Boo.” To be fair, either one would have done the trick.
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.
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.
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 or eating my potato chips or making fart jokes. 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.
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.
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...
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.
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.