WTF Happened to Jennifer Lawrence?

Let us preface this by saying that we know Jennifer Lawrence is still a massive star. After all, she’s got several movies coming out this year and, by all accounts, delivers an excellent performance in the TIFF-bound drama Causeway. But, it has to be said that Hollywood tends to anoint young actors as the next big superstar and then ditch them after one or two flops. In the wake of The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence was everywhere, winning an Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook and solidifying her box office power with a long-running role as Mystique in the X-Men prequels. But, when The Hunger Games series ended, and she had a few high-profile flops, including Mother, Dark Phoenix and the surprisingly great Red Sparrow, Lawrence all but disappeared from view for two years.

She re-emerged last year in Don’t Look Up, but what happened, and why isn’t Lawrence still leading massive tentpole movies? Where’s her big franchise? Or was this lower-key return Lawrence’s idea, as she looks to re-establish herself in roles far removed from the ones that made her famous? It makes sense if you consider that much of her early career was defined by two franchises. One, The Hunger Games, showed Lawrence at her best, but it can also be argued that the X-Men series showed her at her worst, with many complaining her performance as Mystique began to grow listless by the time the franchise finally came to an end with Dark Phoenix. We dig inter her career in this episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity!

This episode is written (with Brad Hamerly), narrated and produced by Taylor James Johnson. Juan Jimenez edits. What’s your favourite Jennifer Lawrence performance? Let us know in the comments!

[wstine]

I have a friend who was a makeup artist on the first "Hunger Games" movie. She said that Jennifer Lawrence was talking to everybody in the makeup trailer, including the extras. A nice person back then.

[MsDavisPhotography]

Jennifer did the smart thing and is living her best life. As a new mom, I hope she takes all the time she wants before taking on any big projects. She is by far one of my favorite actors to watch during interviews.

[VeeLondon]

I wonder if there’s a correlation between Jennifer and Harvey Weinstein. Her opportunities/career took a hit when he lost his power and went to jail.

[tyrroo]

You left out two important factors in her stardom:

1) That time at the Oscars when she wore a red dress [that looked like a Baywatch swimsuit], she tripped going up the stairs. *Everyone* was talking about it the next day

2) She was one of Harvey Weinstein's girls. Not saying she did any sexual favours for him, but he had a way of promoting actresses to appear in movies even when they weren't right for the character [such as Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, both of which she was a decade too young for]

[jules-yirn]

Winters Bone is still amazing! It was the first time we had ever watched her in anything and my wife looked at me said "She's something, that girl." Her roll in Silver Linings Playbook nailed

[LikaLaruku]

I don't blame her for how Mystique turned out. I blame the script writer & director & the costume & makeup department for not paying attention to the comics.

[vitainfanta]

she disappeared because she had a connection with Harvey and took a break to calm down the noise around this story

[blaze]

Catching fire was still to this day the best movie she's ever been a part of. Not only is it the best one in the franchise but an underrated movie in general.

[theyshouldhavenevergivenme]

The most important person in her career was Harvey Weinstein. You can still find clips of her professing her love for Weinstein and what he did for her ...in exchange for what? There are lots of indications that just like Diaz and a lot of other actresses of that era they knew how to get on Weinstein's good side. You can interpret that any way you want but I know how that works in the industry.

[DM-itqf]

She gave brilliant performances but was SO miscast in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, especially American Hustle. I remember seeing those movies at 17 and 18 and being confused about why a woman only a few years older than me was playing the likes of a widow with a six-year-old son who was married to Christian Bale. He himself politely commented that he was concerned by her casting (not due to her abilities because she’s always been a great actress) because the character was not written so young. She was 22 at the time. Honestly kind of ridiculous. Crazy how much culturally can change in a decade, I think that would get a lot more criticism these days.
EDIT: I’ve gotten a couple of responses ignoring the opening part of my initial comment. She gave incredible performances but she was wrong for the parts because she was a decade too young for them.

[BlueMoon-ioeh]

What REALLY happened is that Jennifer made an incredibly SMART decision to disappear from the public eye until people forgot about Weinstein and rebranded as a loving wife/mom so that people wouldn't believe that she was one of Harvey's Casting Couch Queens...(The ones he helped get Oscars for in exchange for certain favors🤫)

Minnie Driver was 100% referring to Jennifer when she said...
"And then I've got to say the other part of that was the kind of astonishment that women that I knew were being super disingenuous about their involvement, women who had been completely complicit and wanted to get ahead by doing certain things, who were then suddenly standing up saying "yes, yes, it was awful. It was awful"

[ajtaylor]

She should definitely be one of the biggest actresses in the world right now, but everything happens for a reason I guess. I think her experience in the Fox X-Men franchise ruined her view on big franchise films, even though she was a part of the Hunger Games franchise. She was really good in "Don't Look Up."

[thereseoreilly]

What happened to her is some people decided they didn't like how she grew up, as is happening with Millie Bobby Brown. I miss her on screen. She's still young by the way!

[PatrickNM]

She was nominated for a Golden Globe for Don’t Look Up a massive hit and has Causeway premiering at Toronto IFF. So she is doing fine

[ThatSoddingGamer]

There is something about Jennifer Lawrence where, in spite of how popular and all over the place she was, she just never really felt like a superstar to me? I mean, objectively she was given how much success she and some of the movies she starred in have had, and she's a good actor, but maybe it's just that she doesn't have an appearance that is really distinctive? Like, Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Benedict Cumberbatch, and so on they have a je ne sais quoi (at least to me) that makes them stand out, both visually and in presence. Jennifer Lawrence was just...very capable, attractive, and evidently successful but otherwise normal, I guess? I've seen her in a lot of things, but I mostly acknowledged her along the lines of "Oh yeah, she's in it. She's good and pretty, she was the one from the Hunger Games and stuff, I'm pretty sure?"

[orafranc]

i've never seen her in anything she made before X-Men and hunger games. For me, Hungry Games put her on the map.

[MrUniq]

It’s kinda crazy when you think how young she was and how consistently successful she has been. She’s only 32! I often assumed she’s a little older than that.

[delrey]

What's the point of this video? Nothing happened to her and she's still having a good career.

[Direbeetus]

Passengers would have been amazing if it was told from Jennifer Lawrence's perspective.

[camilletorres-kelly]

After rewatching Todd in the Shadows’s Witness video essay multiple times, it made me realize—Jennifer Lawrence is the Katy Perry of acting:
1. Both women dominated the 2010s, only for people to move on from them
2. They both built their public personas on being “cool girls” who could hang with the guys
3. Their careers were catapulted into new heights by predatory, abusive men (Weinstein for Lawrence, Dr Luke for Perry)
4. I don’t really think either Katy or Jennifer really built up a true-blue, hardcore fanbase. During the height of JLaw’s popularity, I don’t ever remember encountering a single Stan of hers. These ladies got their approval from the general public, so when the GP moved on to someone shiny and new, they got left in the dust
5. Somebody commented here that Lawrence is rebranding herself as a devoted wife and mother to shed the stink of being associated with Weinstein. Makes me wonder if Katy’s new mom shtick is for the same purpose—covering up her connections to Dr Luke.