Cover Interview

Only now, because Jennifer, or Jen as she prefers, has a workout scheduled for an hour’s time, she’s apologising for sticking to coffee. When I say I’ll do likewise, she’s almost insulted at the very thought, offering to order eggs Benedict simply to keep me company.

That’ll look great in the story, I say: ‘Young Hollywood actress orders a high-calorie break-fast but doesn’t eat a morsel.’

She laughs a husky laugh that seems at odds with her 20-year-old, fresh-faced demeanour but at the same time fits perfectly. ‘I love food, but do you think I’d do that [the eggs Benedict] when I’ve got to do this?’, she asks, picking at the sleeve of her hooded grey sweats. The surprise-outsider Best Actress Oscar nominee at this year’s awards is halfway through a two-month training regime for her next movie, The Hunger Games, and it’s hurting. ‘I don’t like people saying, “Oh, I’m addicted to exercise”. I’m like: “Screw you – just leave!” Because it’s not fun.’

She has two films slated for release in the coming month – the James McAvoy-led X-Men: First Class and The Beaver, with Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson – but it’s 2012’s The Hunger Games, touted as the next (yes, another) Twilight, that’s dominating her thoughts.

Ordinarily, an actress’s future project would warrant no more than a cursory mention. But the conversation throws up two little insights that speak volumes about Jennifer Lawrence’s character. First, she tells me without a hint of pretension how it was the 1998 film Pleasantville (from The Hunger Games’ director Gary Ross) that inspired the then 13-year-old Kentucky schoolgirl not only to become an actress, but also, one day, a director. Yes, a director. Second, that, ‘After I got the offer I came a lot closer to saying no than I thought I would… The fame scared me.’

She’s been living on her own in LA since age 16 – ‘I was so ready for evil Hollywood, but I haven’t experienced any of it! – but over the past six months, ever since the success of Winter’s Bone, Jennifer has learned a lot about fame.

‘Oscar season was surreal and bizarre,’ she recalls. ‘It’s the biggest thing that can happen to an actor and then it’s also… it’s not your life any more. I had a schedule emailed to me instantly. I felt like

a politician on a campaign trail. It was just so exhausting, but you can’t complain to anybody because, you know, there are kids dying of malaria and an Oscar nominee is complaining she’s tired!’

If anyone misinterprets these anxieties as the whining call of the gifted, they’d be wholly mistaken. Jen possesses an innate sense of maturity and perspective which, given her youth, would be downright annoying were it not leavened with a heavy dose of self-deprecation and a fine-tuned sense of hu-mour. At the Marie Claire shoot the following day, t h e p h o t o g r a p h e r ’s directives are met with rejoinders such as, ‘What? You want me to move this Oscar-nominated face?’ and, ‘You want me to place my Oscar-nominated arm where?’, all delivered in her best southern belle accent. Then, she’d drop an octave or three, take a whiff of her arm-pit and announce her new fragrance to the world, ‘Stink.’ [pause] ‘By Jennifer Lawrence.’

There’s nothing manufactured or affected about her. What’s more, in contrast to many actresses of a similar age, Jen is pleasingly unafraid of speaking her mind. Forget those best-dressed lists; mention the Calvin Klein custom-made gown she wore to the Oscars and she’s more interested in discussing the size zero debate and the demands of her industry.

‘You see 12-year-olds ordering salads with dressing on the side. I understand that actresses have to be in a certain shape, but I want the stick-thin trend to end.’ And don’t even get her started on method acting. ‘Anyone who does these extreme diets like gain 100 pounds then lose 100 pounds for the next movie… it’s just not healthy. I’ve always had the same mentality; if I have to give up a small part of myself to make a role a little better then I’ll just do comedies. It’s not worth it.’

I wonder if she’s ever stood up to a director who’s asked her to lose weight. ‘I’ve told someone

I’m not going to lose any more weight,’ she replies. For which film? ‘X-Men,’ she doesn’t flinch. ‘I don’t know. I’ll probably get in trouble for saying that.’

Speaking of X-Men brings us neatly on to the five months she spent in London filming the movie; and subsequently developing a rather special relationship with the capital.

‘When I first landed there I remember call-ing my mom and going, I think I’m going to live here. I want to raise my family here.’ Where did you hang out? ‘London, Reading, Oxford…’

Reading? I intentionally raise my eyebrows. Would that be because a certain X-Men co-star called Nicholas Hoult lives there? Her cheeks redden a little. It’s the first time during the course of the interview she actually betrays her age.

Are the two of you dating? She greets the question with uncharacteristic abashment. There’s a voluble, ‘Aww, schucks!’ So, are you sin-

gle at the moment? There’s a silence, then a faint smile. ‘No, I’m not single.’ Nick Hoult’s a nice bloke. ‘Very nice,’ she answers back.

Jen certainly isn’t short of charm. On the next day’s shoot the whispered chatter amongst stylists and crew is the concern that her burgeoning celeb-

rity profile might, as is often the Hollywood way, change her for the worse. The hope is it won’t. For all sorts of reasons. But, mostly, it would be a shame to lose the person who signs off our inter-view with an anecdote of typical chutzpah. ‘I was round Lenny Kravitz’s house,’ she begins. Her best friend is Lenny’s daughter and X-Men co-star, Zoë. ‘Anyway, I was all by myself in his home and I looked around and I saw them: his collec-tion of Grammys. I just couldn’t resist, so I went and grabbed one and started giving an imaginary acceptance speech. Next thing, I just hear this deep voice from behind me go, ‘So, how does it feel, Jen?’. I turned around and there’s Lenny with his huge bodyguard friend. I was gonna come up with something about polishing it.’ She blows her cheeks and gives a cute shrug of her shoulders, ‘But, hey, I’m fooling no one.’ X-Men: First Class is released on 1 June, The Beaver on 17 June.

Jennifer Lawrenceis genuinely mortified at the thought she might be responsible for me going hungry this morning. We’d arranged to meet for breakfast at the aptly named Snug Harbor diner in Santa Monica, a few blocks from her home.

Words by Harvey Marcus

‘Actresses have to be a certain

shape, but I want the stick-thin trend to end’

Read the full interview with Hollywood’s hottest rising star in July’s