Jennifer Lawrence

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jenifer Lawrence

• Jennifer Lawrence grew up in Louisville, Kentucky.

• Jennifer’s parents did not plan for her birth. Her mother once talked about this in an interview and said,
  

  We thought we were finished having kids. We got rid of the baby bed and everything.”

• Jennifer’s mother raised her tough like her brothers to avoid her becoming overly sensitive or seen as a diva. Her mother even kept Jennifer from playing with other girls in preschool as she thought Jennifer might be rough with them.

  

• Jennifer was a cheerleader in school and played netball, field hockey, and basketball. She played on the guys’ team that her father coached because her mother thought she was too rough to play with the girls.

• Jennifer was such a talkative student in high school that she was named ‘Most Talkative’ for two years in the school’s yearbook.

  

• Since childhood, she aimed to become a doctor, buy a house, be a mother, and live in Kentucky. Yet, she always knew she was destined to be famous.

• Jennifer developed a passion for horseback riding during her upbringing. She often visited a local horse farm.

• Jennifer’s family once owned a farmhouse where she had a horse named Muffin. She once suffered a tailbone injury as she fell from a horse.

  

• As a child, she used to dress up like either a clown or a ballerina to entertain her father whenever he worked from home.

• At 9, Jennifer played the role of a prostitute in a church play inspired by the Book of Jonah. This was the first time he acted. Over the following years, she continued participating in church plays and school musicals. After the play, her family friends approached her parents and said,
  

  “We don’t know if we should congratulate you or not, because your kid’s a great prostitute”.

• Lawrence struggled with hyperactivity and social anxiety as a child. However, she overcame these challenges once she started performing on stage.

• At 14, Jennifer left school without earning a GED or diploma to pursue a career in acting. She was then home-schooled for two years.

• At the same age, Jenniffer captured the attention of a talent scout company while she was on a family vacation in New York. The company later arranged for her to audition for talent agents.

• After her first audition, the agents praised her performance as the best they had heard from someone so young during a cold reading. While her mother convinced her they were lying, Jenniffer signed with CSED Talent Agency anyway.

• At first, Jennifer’s mother did not want her to pursue acting. But later, she took her to New York so Jennifer could audition for roles. Despite relocating, Jennifer continued to visit Louisville and work as an assistant nurse at her mother’s camp.

• Although her mother initially urged her to pursue modelling, Jennifer remained committed to acting as she believed it perfectly matched her abilities.

• Before starting her acting career, Jennifer turned down various modelling offers, though she did model for Abercrombie & Fitch. The pictures from that shoot, where all the girls played football on the beach, were never released because Jennifer took the game very seriously, rather than playing gracefully and looking pretty as expected in a modelling shoot. While talking about this in an interview, she said,
  

  The other models played football in a pretty way but not me. My face was bright red, and I was sweaty with flaring nostrils. One of the girls even yelled, ‘Get her away from me!’ And, when my agent asked why the pictures hadn’t been used, their only response was to send the pictures.”

• Lawrence never received any formal training from a theatre or acting school. She believes in being self-taught and once said,
  

  “I’ve always studied people and been fascinated by their reactions and feelings. And I think that’s the best acting class you can take – watching real people, listening to them and studying them.”

• Jennifer has worked in some television series like USA Network’s ‘Monk’ (2006) and CBS’ ‘Cold Case’ (2007).

  

• Jennifer played the role of ‘Lauren Pearson’ in TBS’ The Bill Engvall Show (2007-2009). The Washington Post critic Tom Shaly once said that she is a “scene stealer” for her rebellious teenage role.
  

• In 2010, she appeared as ‘Ree Dolly’ in the film ‘Winter’s Bone’ for which she learnt how to realistically skin a squirrel.
  

• Jennifer started dating actor Nicholas Hoult while shooting for ‘X-Men: First Class.’ They split briefly in 2013 but got back together during the shoot of the film ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past.’ The duo, however, ended their five-year relationship in August 2014.

• In 2011, Jennifer played the role of ‘Raven Darkhölme/Mystique’ in the film ‘X-Men: First Class.’
  

• She joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2011 and actively supported organisations such as the World Food Programme, Feeding America, and the Thirst Project.

• In 2012, she collaborated with the United Nations along with her co-stars from The Hunger Games to raise awareness about poverty and hunger worldwide.

• She became the ambassador for Dior in 2012.
  

• She gained recognition through her performances as ‘Katniss Everdeen’ in The Hunger Games series ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ (2013), ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1’ (2014), and ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’ (2015). This also made her the highest-grossing action heroine at that time.

  

• Her work as ‘Rosalyn Rosenfeld’ in the film ‘American Hustle’ (2013) was highly appreciated by the audience.
  

• She loves Nachos so much that she stained all her dresses while eating them on the sets of American Hustle. The team then had to arrange an extra pair of dresses for her.

• In 2013, Lawrence won an Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the role of ‘Tiffany Maxwell’ in the romantic comedy film ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ (2012), becoming the second youngest actress to win an Oscar for Best Actress.

  

• In 2014, Jennifer was subjected to a privacy violation when her nude pictures, which were meant for her partner, were hacked and shared online. She later condemned the incident as a “sex crime” and criticised those who viewed the images.

• Jennifer started dating Chris Martin, a singer and songwriter, in August 2014. They dated for four months, broke up in October, then briefly reunited in December. In August 2015, Laurence broke up with Martin as he was not ready for a commitment.

• Jennifer has appeared in many other films including ‘Joy’ (2015), ‘Passengers’ (2016), ‘Mother!’ (2017), ‘Red Sparrow’ (2018), and ‘Don’t Look Up’ (2021).

• In 2015, she founded the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation, which supports and empowers charitable organisations that address the vital needs of children. The foundation also advocates for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Special Olympics.

• Jennifer is outspoken in advocating for feminism and gender equality. In 2015, she publically opposed Kimberly Jean Davis, a former county clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

• In the same year, she wrote an essay for Lenny Letter criticising the gender pay gap in Hollywood. She mentioned how she was paid less than her male co-stars for projects like ‘American Hustle.’

• Jennifer has organised early screenings of some of her films to raise funds for charities such as the Saint May’s Centre in Louisville, which supports individuals with disabilities. One of these screenings raised over $40,000 for the cause.

• In 2015, Jennifer, along with actors Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, participated in Prank It FWD, a charity campaign supporting the non-profit organisation DoSomething.

• Jennifer was speculated to be dating Liam Hemsworth in 2015. However, she denied the rumours during a show in the same year.
  

• Jennifer has contributed to health causes, such as donating $2 million to the Norton Children’s Hospital (formerly Kosair Children’s Hospital) to establish a cardiac intensive care unit named after her foundation.

  

• In 2016, she narrated a documentary titled ‘A Beautiful Planet,’ which was filmed aboard the International Space Station by astronaut crews.

  

• Jennifer and filmmaker Darren Aronofsky started dating in September 2016 after working together on the film ‘Mother!.’ They had a 22-year age gap. After dating for about a year, they broke up in November 2017.

• In 2018, she co-founded the ‘Time’s Up’ initiative with 300 women in Hollywood to combat harassment and discrimination in the industry. In the same year, she participated in the Women’s March in Los Angeles to support gender and racial equality, among other issues.

  

• Jennifer met Cooke Maroney, an art dealer, through a mutual friend in 2018. The duo soon fell in love and got engaged in 2019.

• She has worked as both an actor and a producer for films like ‘Causeway’ (2022) and ‘No Hard Feelings’ (2023).

  

• On 2 October 2021, Jennifer attended the Rally for Abortion Justice in Washington, D.C. while she was pregnant. She was joined by Amy Schumer, a comedian and actor, and held a sign board that read, “Women can’t be free if they don’t control their bodies.”

  

• In 2023, she co-produced a documentary titled ‘Bread and Roses,’ which focused on women in Afghanistan and the impact of the Taliban.

  

• In June 2023, Jennifer’s role in the film ‘No Hard Feelings’ caused controversy online. The film showed her playing a character hired by parents to go out with their 19-year-old son. However, netizens got concerned about the age gap and how the characters interacted. The film’s director later explained that the film was not made to promote bad relationships but to criticise parents who are too controlling.
  

• Jennifer is considered one of the youngest actresses to have won four Academy Award nominations. She is also among the highest-paid actresses, with her movies grossing over $5 billion worldwide.

• Jennifer serves as a board member of RepresentUs, a non-profit organisation dedicated to advocating for anti-corruption laws in the United States.

  

• Various magazines have bestowed her with titles for her captivating persona.

• Jennifer promotes body positivity and challenges unrealistic beauty standards promoted by the media. She criticises the expectation for actresses to lose weight for film roles and advocates for more realistic body standards in Hollywood.

• Jennifer prefers doing comedies over intense roles that could affect her mental health.

• Jennifer consumes alcohol occasionally.

  

• She often smokes cigarettes.

  

• Jennifer once participated in a challenge on a show with YouTuber Sean Evans where she tried eating super spicy chicken wings. Her words, “What do you mean?” from the show went viral on the internet and soon started being used in memes.
  

Jennifer Lawrence as ‘Dominika Egorova’ in the film ‘Red Sparrow’ (2018)