Acclaimed actress Jennifer Lawrence is one of the most accomplished actresses in Hollywood. She has headlined franchises, taking them to multi-million success while also keeping her artistic side alive with Academy Award-winning performances. The Hunger Games actress also took a break recently and made a comeback with 2021’s Don’t Look Up and was last seen in this year’s romantic comedy No Hard Feelings.
However, the actress once revealed how in her initial days, certain roles impacted her emotionally and mentally. In fact, she talks about one particular character in a film that took a toll on her mental health, for which she had to seek therapy.
Jennifer Lawrence’s Shining Career
Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games
Jennifer Lawrence has been in multiple blockbuster films. Her breakthrough role came in the drama Winter’s Bone. The Debra Granik directorial was lauded upon release with Lawrence receiving her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Lead Role. She was just twenty years old and was the second-youngest person to be nominated for an Oscar.
Jennifer Lawrence starred in her first major franchise film, X-Men: First Class. She starred as the superhero Mystique in the 2011 film directed by Mathew Vaughn. The next year, she headlined The Hunger Games series, the young-adult franchise based on the books by Suzanne Collins. These blockbuster franchises propelled her to global recognition.
The same year, Jennifer Lawrence starred in David O Russell’s dark comedy Silver Linings Playbook. She starred along with Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro. The actress won an Academy Award for Best Actress for the film, making her the youngest recipient of the award.
Acting Saved Jennifer Lawrence From Anxiety
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence started her career at the young age of 16. However, she started acting even before then. She said that she had creative energy as a child that vanished after joining her school. Jennifer Lawrence has also stated that she had trouble making friends at school and used to have social anxiety and hyperactivity.
While she tried other measures to cope with it, she claims that performing on stage and gaining appreciation helped her move past it. Recounting her experience to US Weekly, she said,
“One day, I begged my parents to take me to a casting. We went to New York, and that’s where I started acting. Just on stage, my mother saw the change that was taking place in me. She saw my anxieties disappear. She found her daughter, the one who had this light and joy before school.”
While therapy did not work for the actress during her childhood, there was one role that made her visit a therapist.
The Role That Made Jennifer Lawrence Go To Therapy
Jennifer Lawrence in The Poker House
In 2008, Jennifer Lawrence starred in actress Lori Petty’s directorial debut The Poker House. Lawrence plays the role of Agnes, a fourteen-year-old who has to take care of her two siblings as her mother is a prostitute.
Jennifer Lawrence said that the role was tough to leave after filming. The actress was eighteen at the time and was playing a character who goes through a number of traumatic experiences. The actress said that character’s darkness ‘lingered after the film’. Talking about her experience, she said,
“With The Poker House, I was 16 and it was my first movie. Now fortunately I know how to leave the character when I leave work. In fact, it leaves me after [the director] calls cut. But with that [film] I just felt I had to take all of it on, and it did take a toll on me”
The actress later went to a therapist to talk it out and said that she just want to talk about the thoughts she had with someone. Jennifer Lawrence has since played many characters that are dark and go through traumatic experiences, such as Darren Aronofsky’s Mother.