‘A loss of control’: Jennifer Lawrence on the downside of superstardom

The Hunger Games helped propel Jennifer Lawrence into a life of high-profile fame, but she also lost so much in the process.

In a story from Variety, Lawrence discussed her career as part of the London Festival’s “Screen Talk” series. She was candid about her banner year of 2012 with a string of successes that followed, but everything wasn’t going so well behind the scenes.

“I think I lost a sense of control. Between The Hunger Games coming out and winning the Oscar [for 2012’s Silver Lining Playbook], I became such a commodity that I felt like every decision was a big, big group decision. When I reflect now, I can’t think of those following years, [because there was] just a loss of control.”

During this time, Lawrence was Hollywood’s “It” actress. She scored multiple roles, which included joining the X-Men franchise as Mystique, and she worked again with David O. Russell in American Hussle. On top of that, she was a meme goldmine with hilarious soundbites and videos of her clumsiness being shared all over social media.

She took a three-year hiatus from the big screen, Lawrence got married and had a child, and she’s now ready to return to the spotlight with renewed vigor. She said that it feels personal for her for the first time in a long time, and she’s clearly done a lot of soul-searching to get to this place.

In her new drama, Causeway, from director Lila Neugebauer, Lawrence plays Lynsey, United States Army veteran who returns from combat with a brain injury and struggles to acclimate herself back into her home environment. Lawrence started the project pre-pandemic in 2019, and the production delay gave the script time to be developed further. She called it a “very personal” project, and that she gets emotional each time she returns to it.

Lawrence compared this project to her experience working on the low-budget indie hit Winter’s Bone, a story about an Ozark teenager trying to survive and take care of her younger siblings. It’s fitting that she relates it to a beautiful movie she made before The Hunger Games success. Causeway was even more personal to her, she said, because it felt like diary pages. Also she has a more vested interest in the movie because this will be her first credit as a producer under her production company banner, Excellent Cadaver.

Causeway will be available to stream on Apple TV Plus on Nov. 4.