Right now, Jennifer Lawrence is the undisputed Queen of Hollywood. She may have famously stumbled at the Oscars, but when it comes to being universally adored, it seems she could not set a foot wrong if she tried.
With a record-breaking three Oscar nominations, and one triumphant Best Actress win under her belt by the time she reached the age of just twenty-four, Jennifer appears to have the Midas touch – every performance turns to box-office gold and by 2015 she had been named the highest paid actress in the world!
Despite her young age, in just a few years she has soared to become one of the highest-earning actresses in the business, beaten only by women twice her age, with careers stretching back decades. The critics adore her as much as the studio bosses who can guarantee ticket sales will spike whenever her name appears on a film poster.
But what makes this fresh-faced girl from Kentucky so out of the ordinary is her gift for staying so very ordinary! She is pretty but not stunningly beautiful, she is slim and toned but does not have the physical perfection demanded of catwalk models, and most importantly of all she is refreshingly relatable, self-deprecating, silly, and her infectious sense of fun means everyone just wants to hang out with her.
The name Jennifer Lawrence is instantly recognisable around the world and she has a bulging bank balance worth well over $30 million at the time of writing, yet somehow she has not let her superstar status go to her head. She has managed to rise above the usual chaos and excesses that consume most young stars who find fame at an early age, and in the face of it all she remains level-headed and remarkably grounded.
‘I don’t think she’s really changed,’ said Francis Lawrence, director of two of the phenomenally successful Hunger Games films. ‘I’ve been working on these films for three and a half years now and she’s really wonderful. She’s an extremely talented person and very warm and fun to be around. Very down to earth, very silly. She’s exactly the same now, so, she’s fantastic.’
Being catapulted from a rural farming community to the intense glare of the public eye as a naïve teenager could easily have destroyed Jennifer. Many others flung into the same position have fallen at the first hurdle. Suddenly being lavished with more money that she will ever need might have turned her into a typical spoilt brat, rapidly spiralling out of control. All the traps were there just waiting for her to fall into, but so far Jennifer has steered well clear of drugs, tattoos, dangerous boyfriends and all the other downsides of fame that plague so many young stars today.
Countless celebrities have careered off the rails after finding themselves plunged into a strangely isolated and unfamiliar world, surrounded by people agreeing to pander to their every whim, no matter how ridiculous or unsuitable. But by staying close to her family, and making frequent trips back home, Jennifer has managed to avoid it all. Her strict parents and older brothers would soon tell her if she was getting too big for her boots.
Tragic tales of starlets in the grip of addiction, whether drugs, alcohol, cosmetic surgery or diet pills, are sadly all too familiar these days. There are endless reports of young girls crashing their expensive sports cars, tumbling out of nightclubs and flashing too much at the waiting photographers. They fall out of bed and into expensive rehab facilities with alarming regularity.
Against all the odds, Jennifer is not one of those girls, nor is she ever likely to be. She takes her job seriously and is clearly too ambitious to risk losing it all, nor does she feel the need to share too much of herself with the public. For example, she never uses social media sites to upload photos of herself in bikinis, soaking up the sun in exotic locations, and neither does she find it necessary to promote herself by describing her outfits or dinner choices in mind-numbing detail. Indeed, Jennifer lives a rather secluded lifestyle, a world away from the usual excesses of Tinseltown. So while some stars share their every movement, thought and latest purchase via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, Jennifer prefers to keep a surprisingly low profile, avoiding the pitfalls of social media at all costs.
She drinks and smokes a little, but rarely attends showbiz parties and there appears to be no danger of her claiming ‘exhaustion’ and checking into rehab anytime soon. Unlike almost all of her Hollywood peer group, Jennifer refuses point-blank to diet in order to conform to the movie industry’s preference for preternaturally skinny young girls; instead she openly enjoys indulging in fast food and always appears looking strong rather than frail.
As well as her extraordinary talent as an actress, and her leading lady looks, Jennifer has also won over a vast legion of fans around the world, thanks to her quirky sense of humour and a refreshing willingness to laugh at herself, which sets her apart from almost every other A-lister around today.
Some critics have suggested her goofy personality is an elaborate act to win over audiences, and they are just waiting in the wings for her to let the relentlessly cheerful mask slip, but there are far more people who seem to find her likeable rather than irritating.
In a notoriously tough and unforgiving industry, Jennifer has managed to secure herself superstar status, earning high praise and scores of prestigious accolades the old-fashioned way – through sheer hard work and making some very smart career moves. She launched her career at a time when the film business appeared to be increasingly divided into two kinds of movies: blockbusters and awards bait or, as filmmakers like to call them, ‘passion projects’. Somehow Jennifer has defied the expectations of even her fiercest critics and quickly mastered them both.
She is the lead in one of the world’s biggest action franchises (The Hunger Games) and a major player in another (X-Men), ensuring she has fame and wealth to last her a lifetime. But she has not focused on boosting her bank balance at the expense of her art. Her more serious movies all strike box office gold, too. American Hustle was a huge hit in 2013, as was her Oscar-winning appearance in Silver Linings Playbook the year before that.
As an actress, the camera clearly loves Jennifer, but she also boasts a versatility that astounds audiences and keeps them eager for more. Remember her first Oscar nomination came for the gritty indie drama Winter’s Bone (2010), in which she played a troubled rural teen with a desperate will to survive against the odds. And despite still being a teenager herself, Jennifer portrayed a real sense of fear and danger that enthralled cinemagoers. Critics praised her skill and intuition, and from that moment on, this newcomer was the one to watch.
But to be a major star today, you need to do more than just sell tickets at the box office. The biggest celebrities on the planet manage to combine massive earning power with the respect of their industry peers, as well as surviving relentless and intrusive tabloid scrutiny.
Although Jennifer cleverly avoids revealing too much personal information about her friendships or love life, she understands that audiences need to connect with her and so when she has to appear on chat shows or the red carpet, she does so with such familiar warmth and good humour that audiences feel they know her.
Modern superstars often have to endure rather strange – and often dysfunctional – relationships with the public because while many out there want to adore them, there are just as many others scrutinising their every move and poring over every word to expose any minor flaw. The most insignificant error could ruin a carefully constructed career, but Jennifer has managed to turn her awkwardness, clumsiness and perfectly ordinary attitudes into her secret weapon.
‘I can go about life free as an idiot, because I have no idea what I’m doing,’ she once told The New York Times.
She has endured humiliation and scandal on a global scale with ease – her horribly embarrassing naked pictures have been seen, shared, ogled and analysed across the globe – and yet it seems that the more the world sees, the more Jennifer manages to just be herself.
When those infamous private photos were stolen from her iCloud storage device in 2014, she could have issued the usual carefully-worded, pre-approved statement, but instead she was honest and very emotional, furiously turning the spotlight around on anyone who dared to look at the pictures, making them feel like criminals.
Dating famous men and working non-stop has made her meaty fodder for the tabloids – Jennifer is snapped every time she leaves the house for dinner or a even a quick trip to the gym – but despite her high profile she somehow manages to keep her private life to herself and carefully chooses men who share the same attitude as her. They too tend to be polite and make appearances when necessary, but avoid the need to share intimate details of their lives with the public. We are unlikely to see pre-arranged photos of Jennifer and her partner at home or on holiday anytime soon. There have been so many occasions when Jennifer might have hidden herself away or lost her temper with dogged paparazzi photographers, but it has yet to happen – instead she always appears professional and highly entertaining. As she makes her rounds of interviews and public appearances, she notoriously pulls silly faces, bulges her eyes, cracks jokes and even photobombs other stars who might be taking themselves a little too seriously for her liking. Everyone seems to lighten up when she is around.
And appearing so very human is making Jennifer very, very popular indeed. With this one, it seems to be a rare case of what you see is exactly what you get.