“I picture myself drowning.” Jennifer Lawrence swallowed hard and continued. “I picture myself drowning. Outwardly, I look like I’m having a blast, and I am, at least on some levels. There I was — burp, burp, burp — just a little gal from Kentucky, getting discovered by big ol’ Hollywood. But inside I’m terrified. In an instant — boom — everyone’s listening, everyone’s looking.”
Lawrence, 25, was trying to remember the even younger woman she was in the fall of 2011, as the promotional campaign for the first Hunger Games movie began. The attention was not entirely new; she attended the 2011 Academy Awards as a best actress nominee, for the gritty indie Winter’s Bone. But that experience was nothing compared with the scrutiny that arrived when she signed on to play Katniss Everdeen, the reluctant fighter at the centre of the Hunger Games series.
And now? How does Lawrence assess herself as she prepares to say goodbye to Katniss? Mockingjay Part 2, the fourth and final Hunger Games movie is in the offing. The answer — along with Lawrence’s take on Kris Jenner, being too young to play roles for David O Russell, but doing it anyway, and her dreamy connections to her Hunger Games cast mates — emerged in this conversation. Here are excerpts:
At this point, Katniss has been through the mill. She’s had to hunt children for sport against her will. She’s been bedeviled more than once by that godforsaken cat.
If Katniss was scared in the last movie, then she is almost numb in the next one. She’s been through so much.
Does the same description apply to you? You’ve been through a lot, too, over these last few years. Your private photos stolen and published online. Your pay for American Hustle dumped on the Internet as part of the Sony hack. Falling down at the Oscars.Could you maybe rattle off a few more mortifying things about me? (Laughs.)
Sorry. How have you personally changed since the first Hunger Games?
I don’t feel like I’m being dragged by anything anymore. I feel more in control. I’m calmer. I know that there’s no point to feeling anxious all day, so I try not to. I’m still scared, but it’s about different things. OK, get ahold of yourself, Jennifer. This is not therapy.
You Google yourself? You must promise to never, ever do that again.
You try being 22, having a period and staying away from Google. I once Googled ‘Jennifer Lawrence Ugly.’ (Laughs)
Do I sound bitchy?
Not at all. You sound like a real person.
I can’t think of a more wasteful use of my time than to worry about this. Why do I care what people think? But I do. I just can’t pretend I don’t care. I get really insecure about it. The world makes an opinion of you without ever meeting you. That worry should not bother me, but it does. It bothers me. I’m going to leave here and think, Oh God, why couldn’t I just have been cool and confident?
How did you and Amy Schumer become friends?
I emailed her after I saw Trainwreck and said: “I don’t know where to get started. I guess I should just say it: I’m in love with you.” We started emailing, and then emailing turned to texting. There’s actually something about us that I’m dying to make public, but I’m not sure if I can. Amy and I are writing a movie together! We play sisters, and we’re almost done writing. It just flowed out of us. We’ve got about 100 pages right now.
Wow! Any more details?
Amy and I were creatively made for each other. We have different flavours. It’s been the most fun experience of my life. We start the day off on the phone, laughing. And then we send each other pages. And we crack up.
A couple years ago, you said in an interview — see, your words coming back to haunt you — that you feel less overwhelmed by fame if you stay home, so you were just staying inside your house a lot. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
I realised at some point that I can live this life in my own way, that there are ways of joining Hollywood without being someone other than myself. For example, I don’t have to go to the Chateau Marmont to have a birthday party. I can just have it at my house.
How do you choose your films? After the next Hunger Games comes Joy, with David O Russell directing you again, and then an outer space movie.
You know, I read scripts. I hire people for their opinions, and I listen. But, ultimately, the gamble is a part of your art. I do things that I respond to, and try not to overthink it.
Not overthink it in the same way that you don’t like to work scenes to death on your own before coming to the set?
I’m happy that you have taken that to an intellectual level and made it complimentary, but it’s really just pure laziness. I memorise my lines in hair and makeup.
You have two kids in the movie, right? Do you feel old enough for that?
David gets visions. He’s in his own beautiful, amazing world. Those kinds of silly questions don’t really matter to him. It’s not like I was old enough for American Hustle. And I was way too young for Silver Linings Playbook. That’s why I almost didn’t get it.
What are you going to miss most about your Hunger Games experience? Your cast mates? I know you’re particularly close to Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth.
On the last day it was so emotional, and we kind of couldn’t let go of each other. We were kind of freaked out that something was ending. And then, a week later, we were hanging out at Liam’s house. We were like, “Oh, OK, so now we can just be friends.” After seeing that nothing really changed with the three of us — four, including Woody Harrelson, but he lives in Hawaii, so it’s trickier — we were fine. I mean, this was yesterday: Woody texted me and said he had a dream about me. And I was like, “Was I amazing?” And then Josh called me and told me he had a dream about Woody. And then my friend came over to my house and told me she had a sex dream about Liam.
I didn’t dream about anyone, but there’s always tonight.
The New York Times