Jennifer Lawrence: From Hero to Almost Zero in Five Films

She was the youngest actress to earn four Oscar nominations, the films she starred in have grossed US$5.54 billion at the international box office, and she was the highest-paid actress in the world in 2015 and in 2016. 10 years ago, she was included in the magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world Time. Today his Without hard feelingsa romantic comedy for teens currently in theaters, is struggling to exceed US$50 million in revenue.

Winter’s Bone (2010)

In Debra Granik’s feature film, adapted from the eponymous novel by Daniel Woodrell, Jennifer Lawrence plays Ree, a teenager from the Ozarks, who goes in search of her father in order to prevent the family from being evicted from their home. . To prepare, the 20-year-old young woman at the time of the film’s release spends a week learning to chop wood, butcher squirrels and fight. Her performance earned her rave reviews, nominations rained down and she became the second youngest woman in history to be nominated for an Oscar.

The Hunger Games: The Movie (2012)

Celebrity, the one that propels the front page of gossip magazines, arrives with her role as Katniss Everdeen. Jennifer Lawrence, who won Mystique in the excellent reboot X-Men: First Class, by Matthew Vaughn, released in 2011, is therefore a regular in action films. It is her mother who convinces her to agree to play the rebellious heroine born under the romantic pen of Suzanne Collins. She then learns archery, bare-handed combat and trains to the point of injury. The teen movie is a triumph with more than US$690 million at the box office and the actress becomes the most profitable action movie heroine in history. And if the public is passionate about her life, her way of speaking, her blunders and her refreshing candor, it is because they recognize themselves in her.

The bright side (2012)

Nothing stops then Jennifer Lawrence, to whom everything succeeds. In this feature film by David O. Russell – the first of a trio of collaborations with this filmmaker – she is transformed into a young widow who falls in love with a man suffering from bipolarity, played by Bradley Cooper. This dramatic romantic comedy won over audiences, critics and the industry, with Jennifer Lawrence becoming the second-youngest woman in history to win the Best Actress Oscar.

Passengers (2016)

There star gets caught up in the celebrity game, continues the aftermath of X-Men and The Hunger Games while collaborating with David O. Russell and maintaining his uninhibited outspokenness. The first crack in what appears to be a perfect career appears with Passengers, for which she was not only paid US$20 million, but also headlined before Chris Pratt, the other main actor. The thick, clumsy and pretentious science fiction feature film does not obtain the expected success. On the set of Mother! (2017), by Darren Aronofsky, she begins an affair with the filmmaker, their 20-year age difference raising eyebrows. The same year, Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment in an article in the New York Times. But Jennifer Lawrence has always had good relations with the producer, whom she publicly nicknames “my little rascal” and with whom she says she has a “paternal” relationship. Public opinion sweeps the actress out of hand, not without insulting her copiously on social networks and The Red Sparrow (2018) is released in almost general indifference… It is time for it to be forgotten.

Without Grudge (2023)

Jennifer Lawrence continues to live at 100 per hour. She met gallerist Cooke Maroney in 2018, married him in 2019 and gave birth to their son, Cy, in 2022. She started producing with Causeway (2022) in which she plays, then the documentary Bread and Roses on Afghan women. Wishing to return to her first love, she holds the top of the bill in Without hard feelings of which she is also a producer. This romantic comedy, which claims to be scandalous without being so, has so far only managed to raise US$49.7 million for a production budget of US$45 million. No doubt, if there is to be a career recovery, it won’t be easy.