The role Jennifer Lawrence only played because her mother told her to: “So, I said yes”
When Jennifer Lawrence was just 22-years-old, she found herself the second-youngest woman to win ‘Best Actress’ at the Oscars for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. This wasn’t the actor’s first Academy Award nomination, either, having earned a nod for her fourth film, Winter’s Bone, two years earlier.
Evidently, Lawrence’s entry into Hollywood was impressive, with her tenure in various indie movies preparing her for inevitable stardom. While the actor’s success didn’t happen overnight – she spent several years appearing in various television shows before making her film debut – it didn’t take long for Lawrence to prove herself a worthy leading actor once she stepped into the industry.
Winter’s Bone was, more than anything, proof of Lawrence’s talent, with the actor playing a young girl who, despite living in poverty with a mentally ill mother, does all she can to provide for her siblings while attempting to find their missing father. Following her acclaimed performance, the actor was suddenly presented with much bigger opportunities that she had to think hard about.
One of these was The Hunger Games, a film that was set to become a franchise, based on the hugely popular dystopian novels by Suzanne Collins. The books were a staple feature on the bookshelves of every pre-teen and teenager in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with the novels telling the tale of a ruthless society where a child from each district is forced to compete in an event where only one can survive. As the elites watch over and treat the game as entertainment, the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, emerges as a rebellious force that threatens to destroy the structure of the nation, Panem.
Lawrence was unsure about taking the leading role, which would require her to sign on for multiple movies that would likely turn her into a huge star. Having only appeared in movies made on much smaller budgets at this point in her life, she knew that she had a massive decision to make that would shape the subsequent direction of her career.
Thus, the actor did what many young women do – she turned to her mother for advice. Talking to Collider, the actor revealed the process of accepting the role: “It’s really rare in your life that saying yes to something will completely change your life. I was happy with my life and I just didn’t know if I wanted it to change. I’ve always had this imaginary future in mind where I would be a soccer mom that drove a minivan and my kids were normal and I had the same family that I grew up with. That just didn’t fit with taking on a giant franchise.”
She continued, “So, I took three days, and each day was a different answer. I finally talked to my mom. I had only really done indies before that, and she said, ‘Every time people ask you why you don’t do studio movies, you always say that it’s because you don’t care about the size of the movie, you care about the story and the character. But, you’re a hypocrite because now you have a story and a character that you love, but you’re not saying yes to it because of the size of it.’ So, I said yes, and I haven’t regretted it. I expected to, but I haven’t, so far.”
Thus, Lawrence realised the importance of just going for something, even if it felt scary. The role of Katniss Everdeen won her plenty of acclaim, and she became an icon of the 2010s. Shortly after, she won her Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook, and continued to star in three more Hunger Games movies, with the series becoming one of the biggest franchises of the 21st century.
