The Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence recently told SciFiNow how she was told to lose weight when she signed onto play Katniss Everdeen. And as if we couldn’t love the down-to-earth starlet any more, she explained how she took a metaphorical bow and arrow to their suggestion and shot it straight down.

“In the first movie, when it was obviously being talked about, like, ‘It’s the Hunger Games, you have to lose 10lb,’ I was like, ‘We have control over this image, we have control over this role model. Why would we make her something unobtainable and thin?’” Lawrence said.

“This is a person that young girls – well, all women, but mainly young girls – will be looking up to and are going to want to look like her, and we have control over it, so why not make her strong? Why not make her beautiful and healthy and fit?

“I was very adamant about that, because I think that our industry doesn’t take enough responsibility for what it does to our society, about having these unrealistic expectations, and I don’t want to be part of that. I remember what it felt like to be 14 years old and looking at a Victoria’s Secret model, and thinking, ‘I’ll never look like that.’ I don’t want to make someone feel like that.”

The 23-year-old has been known to lash out at the US TV show, The Fashion Police, where presenter Joan Rivers critiques celebrity outfits and body shapes. “The thing that upsets me the most is when anybody says anything to one of the people from a show like that, they say, ‘Well, welcome to the real world!’” Lawrence continues.

“The world’s not really going to change if we just keep saying stuff like that. What if, in the ‘50s, someone had said, ‘Why should black people use a separate bathroom?’ and you said, ‘Welcome to the real world!’ Nothing really changes as long as someone has that mentality, until someone has the mentality of, ‘We aren’t going to call anybody ‘fat’ on TV because I think it’s incredibly dangerous.’ I think that everybody is responsible for the effect that they have. And it fires me up!”

Consider the world officially put to rights.

Source

Jennifer Lawrence has had a pretty incredible twelve months. Let’s take a few minutes to recap quickly. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Weirdos started sleeping on her lawn. She finished near the top of a ton of those most beautiful women lists. She filmed American Hustle which could potentially net her another Oscar nomination, and she’s just days away from releasing Hunger Games: Catching Fire. That collective madness would be enough to overwhelm most people, but to Lawrence, it’s all positively normal compared to the world’s response to her recent haircut.

That’s right. During an interview, the actress talked about her wild rise to fame, and she cited the strangest part as the Internet’s crazy, over-the-top reaction to her chopping off her once flowing locks. Here’s the exact quote, as per USA Today…

“Can you ever imagine? If anyone wants to know the weirdest thing, it’s getting your hair cut and seeing it on the news. Terrorists probably knew about my haircut. I can blow-dry my hair in two minutes. It’s awesome.”

It’s actually amusing how much truth there is to that statement. Hollywood is like a culture breathing dragon, and as an it girl, what she does is quickly beamed to the rest of the world. Terrorists might be a bit of a stretch, but I’m sure in the middle of bum fuck South America, there were people arguing about whether or not she looks better with short hair. That’s a weird idea to think about from the outside looking in. God only knows how bizarre it must be from the inside out.

In a way, the above quote is a good snapshot analysis for why the world has fallen so hard for this girl. Her thoughts, especially on fame, always seem so incredibly sensible. In truth, many of us would probably be raging monsters if we were suddenly rich and blessed with over-the-moon popularity, but deep down, we would like to believe that we’d continue to laugh at ourselves, make funny little comments about the absurdity of it all and most especially, give interviews like this.

In case you’re the only breathing human being in the Americas who hasn’t gotten a chance to check out J-Law’s shortened hair, I’ve gone ahead and embedded a huge image below, courtesy of her Facebook page. The jury is still out as to whether or not she will elect to keep it that close to her head over the long haul, but regardless of what she decides to do, the more important thing for her is that she keeps that beautiful smile and charming personality.

Source

One week and approximately a billion media questions about her haircut later, Jennifer Lawrence is still on the Catching Fire promotion circuit. The reigning best-actress-Oscar winner has circled the globe as part of her contractual obligations to the Hunger Games sequel, out tomorrow, and while visibly fatigued, Lawrence is still somehow eking out new endearing anecdotes, just at a slightly reduced pace.

The revelations made during this week’s press rounds:

The one person Lawrence would totally freak out over meeting is Bill Murray.

She has already freaked out over meeting Jeff Bridges and Jack Nicholson.

She will go to the mat for any secondary after-school activity that is not officially considered a sport.

When one of her fellow cast members, off track from a question, mentioned that synchronized swimming is not a sport, Lawrence jumped in defensively. “I was a cheerleader, and I don’t like it when people said that wasn’t a sport,” Lawrence said. “I can understand what you are insinuating with the synchronized-swimming thing, and let me tell you, they are athletes!”

If a complete stranger asks to be her best friend, she will not immediately say no.

One junket reporter dared to ask both the actress and Hutcherson point-blank whether they would be her best friends. While Hutcherson laughed off the question, Lawrence barely hesitated in responding, “What’s your favorite channel on TV?” Unfortunately, the Clevver News interviewer and potential B.F.F. failed the pop quiz by answering “the Travel Channel.”

After Lawrence laughed derisively, immediately dismissing the potential relationship, the journalist managed to regain footing by offering both actors candy bracelets that she had in an unmarked envelope. “We can be best friends now,” Lawrence conceded, taking the bribe. After gnawing through the entire bracelet during their brief interview, Lawrence promised her new B.F.F. that she would hold onto the saliva-covered string as a token of their fleeting best-friendship.

When asked what kind of product she would like to see her face on, as part of Hunger Games franchising, Jennifer Lawrence has a very practical answer.

After Hutcherson beat her to “toilet paper,” Lawrence said, “paper towels, because those are one of those things you’re are always so grateful to see, like wash rags . . . ’cause you are always out of paper towels. No one thinks to buy them.”

If you are a paparazzi, never ever bring a date on your J.Law-tracking mission.

After telling a horrific story about a Prius-driving paparazzo who brought along his girlfriend to hound Lawrence all day in her neighborhood, and how they flicked off the actress, she revealed that she has a revenge plan the next time she sees him: “I am going to bring him a cup of coffee with some antifreeze in it.”

Accuse Jennifer Lawrence of being whatever you want—just not a bad kisser.

“You’ve never complained about slobber in any other kissing scene!” Lawrence yelled at Josh at the insinuation that she slobbered on her co-star in any scene aside from the one she admitted accidentally slobbered on him. “I am not a wet kisser. That is gross. I would never be a swamp kisser, ever. Ever!’
Jennifer Lawrence once almost flipped out on Josh Hutcherson’s mother for not fulfilling her pizza delivery duties.
The most exciting moment, for Lawrence at least, occurred during an AOL conversation yesterday with her co-stars Josh Hutcherson, Jena Malone, and Sam Claflin. As she powered through repetitive fan inquiries, something caused the actress to recall a pizza-related incident that occurred in Lawrence’s downtime with Hutcherson on location in Hawaii. Readers, the two Catching Fire leads related this story with more vigor, enthusiasm, and eventually post-traumatic anger than they had summoned in all junket interviews combined. It was as if they were recounting a tale of finding buried treasure after years of searching, only to realize that the treasure was some desert mirage.

As is my duty as VF.com’s primary J.Law archivist, I’ve transcribed the anecdote in full below.

Jennifer, randomly: Remember when your mom didn’t order that pizza that one time, and I was so mad?

Josh: [You were so angry that] you had to walk away. . . . So we were at a house that we had over in Hawaii. We were all going out on this little adventure in kayaks from my house across the ocean to these other small islands. . .

Jennifer: It was 45 minutes there, and 45 minutes back.

Josh: My mom said for us to call her when we . . .

Jennifer: . . . got to the island . . .

Josh: . . . because she is going to order pizza that takes 45 minutes [to make and deliver].

Jennifer: So by the time we get back . . . the pizza is there.

Josh: So we paddle all the way back and literally the only thing that is keeping us going is . . .

Jennifer: . . . we’re all chanting, “Pizza, pizza!”

Josh: . . . and then we get [home], and the pizza has not even been ordered.

Jennifer: I’m like, [in angry giant voice] “Where is the pizza?!’’

Josh: She said, “Oh, want me to order it?”

Jennifer: I was like [mimes walking away], “Yoga breathing, yoga breathing.”

Source

Yesterday, universally beloved actress Jennifer Lawrence appeared on the publicity circuit to chat about Hunger Games: Catching Fire, unveil a brand new punk-pixie coiffure, and further endear herself to the universe with a new batch of lovably unpretentious anecdotes.

Among them: that her decision to chop off her hair was motivated not by vanity but by excessive dye damage and the fact that her hair simply, as she said, “couldn’t get any uglier.” “It grew to an awkward, gross length,” Lawrence told Yahoo C.E.O. Marissa Mayer during a panel discussion, “and I kept putting it back in a bun, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this,’ so I just cut it off.”

Lawrence also took the time to reassure concerned Hunger Games fans: “This isn’t how Katniss is going to look in the next movies; I’m wearing a wig for filming.”

Other endearing J.Law anecdotes from yesterday’s press rounds:

If Lawrence had to pick an alternate career, she’d choose “hotel maid” . . .

“. . . because I really like to clean and also look through people’s stuff. And it’s always like new people every day. . . And I would like to think a nurse or a doctor because I’ve always been interested in the human body and everything gross. But I don’t think I could make it through school. But if I could just show up, then a nurse or a doctor.”

She really enjoyed her wetsuit scenes in Catching Fire for T.M.I. reasons.

“Josh [Hutcherson] and I could just swim in the water or, like, pee any time you want[ed]. Anytime you have to pee, you can just run right in the water. It was amazing.”

On the flip side, she did not enjoy wearing the couture wedding gown in Catching Fire.

Since it required her to relieve herself in a bucket between takes. “That’s hard to do when you can’t see.”

Lawrence thinks she has a hideous crying face.

After watching Catching Fire, she thought to herself, “‘Oh my God. You have to find a prettier crying face. You need to keep it together.’ I’m going to try to do more crying where it’s, like, beautiful tears falling down my face and not changing anything, instead of [scrunching] this face.”

Hunger Games: Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence forced her to try Spam sushi during filming in Hawaii, and it was disgusting.

The mojitos at her hotel, she revealed, were amazing, though.

Jennifer Lawrence is really jealous that Josh Hutcherson was Punk’d by MTV.

She had no idea that Punk’d was even still on the air, but now that she knows, she would really like to be targeted by the MTV show.

She once forfeited her chance to work on a great movie on behalf of Amanda Seyfried.

She said that she read a comedy script that she absolutely loved once, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Amanda Seyfried in the role. So instead of auditioning, she called the producers and said they should hire Seyfried.

Lawrence lost her hearing while filming Catching Fire.

“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.”

One actor continually tells her to return her Oscar.

Every time Lawrence flubbed her lines during shooting, her Catching Fire co-star Woody Harrelson would crack, “Well, you better give that Oscar back.”

It would take a lot to get her to play Fantasy Football.

“You’d have to teach me how to use a computer. Then you’d have to teach me about football. And then you’d have to tie me down and force my eyeballs open.”

Her deepest, darkest concern about fame:

“I guess my main worry is that people will start hating what I hate about myself. I worry that everybody will think I am really annoying and just want me to shut up. Which would make so much sense because I annoy myself . . . I guess I want people to know that if they are annoyed with me, I get it, it’s totally cool. Please forgive me.”

Source

Jennifer Lawrence’s new pixie haircut is “catching fire,” but the result came from dye damage and other overstyling.

No, it wasn’t just to freak out “Hunger Games” fans who shudder at the thought of Katniss Everdeen without her signature brunet braid.

“No, this isn’t how Katniss is going to look in the next movies, don’t worry,” the 23-year-old star said during a Yahoo chat on Thursday. “I’m wearing a wig [in them].”

“I don’t know, I cut it earlier, and it was just kind of like [shoulder-length] and it grew to that awkward, gross length,” she said. “I just kept putting it back in a bun, and I said, ‘Well I don’t want to do this,’ so I just cut it off.”

It “couldn’t get any uglier,” she quipped.

Just after that, the trend-setting starlet went on a long-winded tirade about body image in Hollywood after an audience member solicited advice for people experiencing harsh disparagement from their peers.

“Well, screw those people,” she said. “It’s something that everybody experiences. I experienced it in school. The world has a certain idea — we see this airbrushed perfect model image. … You just have to look past it. You look how you look. And be comfortable. What are you gonna do, be hungry every single day to make other people happy? That’s just dumb.”

Then the Dior spokeswoman went after E!’s snark fest “Fashion Police,” hosted by sharp-tongued comedienne Joan Rivers.

“And there’s shows like the ‘Fashion Police’ and things like that are just showing these generations of young people to judge people based on things… that they put values in all the things that are wrong and that it’s OK to point at people and call them ugly and call them fat and they call it ‘fun’ and ‘welcome to the real world.’ And it’s like, that shouldn’t be the real world. That’s going to keep being the real world if you keep it that way. It’s not until we stop treating each other like that and just stop calling each other fat … with these unrealistic expectations for women. It’s disappointing that the media keeps it alive and fuels that fire,” she said.

“That’s something that really bothers me because I love to eat,” she finished with a laugh.

Zing!

Lawrence also revealed that she had a thing for ‘N Sync frontman Justin Timberlake. Before he left the band, that is.

“My teen crush — Justin Timberlake. Nineties Justin Timberlake though, like ‘NSYNC Justin Timberlake,” she added. “I remember when I bought the ‘NSYNC CD, and I was listening to it and I was flipping through –- remember how CDs had the pull-out picture things? And I was getting so overwhelmed with hormones that I almost threw up.”

Add to the list the Lawrence brothers, “Boy Meets World” actor Matthew Lawrence and “a little bit” of “Growing Pains” alum Kirk Cameron.

During a Global Google+ Hangout, the playful actress again explained why she’d opted for her shortened look, first joking that it was to upset “Hunger Games” director Francis Lawrence (no relation).

“I just did it to make Francis mad,” she laughed. “I did it just to annoy him. No, it was just at that awkward length … the first time I cut it to [shoulder-length], he totally thought it was me giving him the finger.

“But it’s not,” she admitted. “It’s just fried from being dyed so much.”

Source

Jennifer Lawrence didn’t just win the Oscar for Best Actress last month. She basically won the whole Oscars. (Apologies to Ben Affleck.) She charmed late-night hosts — and Academy voters — with a disarming blend of bawdy humor and compulsive oversharing in the weeks before the ceremony. She rocked the red carpets with a variety of gorgeous gowns. More importantly, she was the only nominee who arrived at the Dolby Theatre currently fronting a $400 million blockbuster franchise. Certainly, she was wonderful and deserving of the Academy Award for her performance as a dispirited young widow in The Silver Linings Playbook, but as she accepted the Oscar, there was also a palpable recognition that she is The Future: a young, beautiful indie-film queen who can also carry and sell an action franchise.

At only 22, with an Oscar and central roles in The Hunger Games and X-Men, Lawrence appears to be the right actress in the right movies at the right time. “Everyone wants to work with her, whether it’s another actor or actress or a director or a studio,” says David Glasser, COO of The Weinstein Company, which distributed Silver Linings. “I think everybody right now wants to find that great Jennifer Lawrence Project.”

After auditioning and losing the role of Twilight’s Bella to Kristen Stewart, the first great Jennifer Lawrence Project was Winter’s Bone, the gritty 2010 indie in which Lawrence played a tough Ozark teen looking after her poverty-stricken younger siblings, no thanks to her MIA dad and mentally ill mom. Appearing in virtually every scene, she dazzled critics and was nominated for her first Oscar. “There was something about her [audition] and the way she was able to convey having the burden of this family on her shoulders. It’s not even something that you can really act,” says Paul Schnee, who along with Kerry Barden, cast that Sundance film. “Knowing the demands of the role, I was [like], ‘This is the girl! This is the girl!’”
Most everyone who has ever worked with Lawrence seems to have a version of that “This is the girl!” moment. When Lionsgate announced plans to adapt Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, Lawrence was an immediate contender for its starring role, in part due to Katniss Everdeen’s similarities to her independent, backwoods character from Winter’s Bone. But Gary Ross (Seabiscuit), who landed the plum assignment to script and direct The Hunger Games, hadn’t yet seen her in that movie. His epiphany came when he spent three days writing voiceover for Jodie Foster’s movie The Beaver, in which Lawrence played Anton Yelchin’s girlfriend.

“Just looking at the film over and over again, I just kept saying, ‘Who’s this actress?’ I just couldn’t believe the talent,” says Ross, who’s called casting Lawrence as Katniss the easiest movie decision he ever made. “It wasn’t even like a casting quote choice. I honestly felt lucky that an actress this good existed at that moment for that film. That’s how I felt. I remember saying to Lionsgate when we were casting, ‘Look, this comes along once every 10 years.’ Someone walks in the door with that kind of massive talent, it knocks you back in your chair.”

Action movies have historically been a man’s world, and Hollywood’s most successful actresses, like Julia Roberts, settled for carving out their dominion in the most lucrative genre available to their gender: romantic comedies. Twenty years ago, even when Jodie Foster stood on a similar pedestal of arthouse and multiplex success right after Silence of the Lambs, you might have been tossed out of the studio suite for pitching a $100 million franchise built around a female protagonist (Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies was among very few exceptions). But there’s been a shift in the culture and hardly anyone blinked in 2010 when Angelina Jolie — already Lara Croft and Mrs. Smith — successfully delivered Salt, an action thriller initially conceived for Tom Cruise.

Today’s action-movie heroines are no longer damsels in distress. They’re tough (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), brave (Brave), and as lethal with a weapon as their male counterparts (Snow White and the Huntsman). When Lawrence was cast as Katniss in 2011, she became the face not only of Collins’ dystopian-future Joan of Arc, but the new face of real girl-power at the box office. Hunger Games opened like a superhero, with a $152.5 million weekend, and went on to gross more than any movie of 2012 except The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises.

But Ross wasn’t the first one to leverage Lawrence’s talent for a huge popcorn spectacular. X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn cast her to play a younger version of Mystique, the blue-skinned mutant played by Rebecca Romijn in the original films, for his 2011 preboot. Her supporting character took a backseat to mutant frenemies played by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, but the actress made an immediate impression on First Class producer Bryan Singer, who’s directing the sequel, Days of Future Past.

“There was a sequence they were doing with James and Mike, and I noticed that she had no trouble speaking her mind, in a fun way,” laughs Singer. “She and Matthew sort of had a back and forth about what was working and what wasn’t, and it just sort of struck me that of all the actors standing on the platform, she was among the youngest and yet she was able to be the most vocal.”
For anyone’s who’s chuckled through one of Lawrence’s freewheeling, b.s.-free interviews where she jokes about her breasts, pretends to fart, or playfully jousts with Jack Nicholson, such a tale is hardly difficult to imagine. “I don’t think Jennifer is intimidated by anything or anybody,” says Ross. “I’d be amazed if she ever had been. She’s one of the more confident people I’ve ever met in my life, but it’s earned. She has the talent to back it up.”

Source