We all know Jennifer Lawrence as one of the biggest actors of the 2010s after her career skyrocketed when she was cast as Katniss Everdeen in the big screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins’s bestselling book series, The Hunger Games.
Jennifer starred in all four movies as well as plenty of other films during this time, even winning her first Academy Award for Silver Linings Playbook in 2012 at the age of 22.
In addition to her acting prowess, Jennifer quickly became renowned for her fun-loving personality and managed to become the internet’s honorary BFF despite not using any form of social media.
In fact, the more that she fell over at glam events or gushed about eating junk food, the more Jennifer stood out among her polished industry peers.
Over the course of nine years, Jennifer managed to dominate movie theaters by starring in a staggering 21 films. But following the release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix in 2019, the star disappeared from the spotlight.
Speaking last year, Jennifer admitted that she’d made the calculated decision to take a step back because she felt as though people were getting bored of her.
“I just think everybody had gotten sick of me. I'd gotten sick of me,” she told Vanity Fair at the time. “It had just gotten to a point where I couldn't do anything right. If I walked a red carpet, it was, ‘Why didn't she run?’”
“I felt like I reached a point where people were not pleased, just by my existence,” Jennifer went on, before noting that this feeling prompted a reevaluation. “So that kind of shook me out of thinking that work or your career can bring any kind of peace to your soul.”
“I think coming out of the Hunger Games and all of that, it was nice. I took a break and nobody really cared and it was quiet,” she separately said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “I got to feel like I could become a part of the world again without fanfare. Literal fanfare.”
Jennifer returned to our screens in 2021 as part of Adam McKay’s star-studded line-up for his Netflix hit, Don’t Look Up.
And while she happily did press for the movie during this time, it has only been this year that she has really dominated headlines with the candid honesty that once served as the catalyst for her global superstardom.
Back in September, Jennifer bluntly addressed the “bizarre” rumor that she’d had sex with Harvey Weinstein while filming Vogue’s 73 Questions.
And earlier this month, the star was forced to defend herself after her comments about women-led action movies during a conversation with Viola Davis for Variety’sActors on Actors series sparked backlash.
Now, Jennifer has spoken openly about her experience with “toxic masculinity” in the movie industry for the Hollywood Reporter’sActress Roundtable with Michelle Williams, Michelle Yeoh, Danielle Deadwyler, Emma Corrin, and Claire Foy.
Discussing her latest film, Causeway, Jennifer said that she noticed a stark difference when working on a women-led project compared to her time on set with “emotional men.”
“It was just so interesting to be on a female-led movie. My producing partner and I were the lead producers. We had a female director [Lila Neugebauer]. The schedule made sense. There were no huge fights. If an actor had a personal thing and wanted to leave early, instead of going, ‘Oh! Well, we’d all love to leave early!’ we’d put our heads together and go, ‘OK. How can we figure this out?’ she recalled.
“We disagreed, and we listened to each other. Sometimes I was wrong and would learn that I was wrong, and sometimes I was right. It was incredible to not be around toxic masculinity. To get a little break from it,” Jennifer went on.
She then name-checked controversial filmmaker Bryan Singer, who she worked with on the X-Men films First Class, Days of FuturePast, and Apocalypse.
Bryan was accused of sexual misconduct in 2019, and several other actors have previously said that he is difficult to work with — including Alan Cumming and Rami Malek.
“It did always just make us laugh about how we ended up with, ‘Women shouldn’t be in roles like this because we’re so emotional,’” Jennifer told her peers. “I mean, I’ve worked with Bryan Singer. I’ve seen emotional men. I’ve seen the biggest hissy fits thrown on set.”
“[Neugebauer’s] my third female director, and they are the calmest, best decision-makers I’ve ever worked with. I absolutely love working with female directors,” she concluded.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Jennifer reflected on her break from the spotlight and said that her level of fame directly impacted her ability to be a good actor.
“A lot of it was just losing touch with the world a little bit. I was working so much, and so much of what we do has to do with observing people,” she explained. “I felt like I couldn’t really observe anyone because everybody was observing me. And so, taking a few years and getting back to life, I feel like I can be creative again in that sense.”
Jennifer also recalled her perseverance when it came to her first breakout movie role in the 2010 drama Winter’s Bone, which earned her her first Academy Award nomination.
The star said that when she went to the Los Angeles casting for the movie, she was turned down. Instead of accepting defeat, Jennifer decided to fly across the country to attend the New York auditions.
“When Winter’s Bone turned me down, they were doing LA casting, that I went to, and they were like, ‘No, thank you,’” she said. “And then, they opened up casting in New York, and I flew to New York and just reentered like a stranger.”
Referencing her success at landing the role in New York, Jennifer joked: “Maybe they were just scared at that point, and they were like, ‘OK.’”
It was previously reported that the movie’s producers rejected Jennifer because they thought she was “too pretty.” Discussing the situation in 2015, Jennifer said: “Well, they turned me down and then they moved casting to New York, and I put myself on a red-eye to just show up to casting the next day in New York.”
“So that always helps,” she mused. “Red-eye. Not showering. No makeup. Eventually they went, 'Oh, she's right. She's not cute!'"
