Dive into the extraordinary journey of Jennifer Lawrence, from a Kentucky horse farm to Hollywood stardom. Explore her rise through breakthrough roles, Oscar wins, viral moments, and personal challenges that shaped her incredible career.
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00:00Ashley bought Aniston, I could tell you that.
00:02Right, Jennifer Aniston is way better than Jennifer Lawrence, do you agree?
00:06Yeah.
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're unravelling the tumultuous but inspiring trajectory of
00:12Jennifer Lawrence's phenomenal career.
00:15It's awfully young to have so much success so far.
00:17You feel that this, is it a good thing that it's coming so early in the career?
00:21I hope so.
00:23J-Law's journey to stardom was shaped by both the Hollywood buzz machine and the challenges
00:29of public life.
00:30Raised on a horse farm in Kentucky, the free-spirited kid found it hard to fit in at school.
00:36So your classmates, they must have thought, this is a, you're different, if nothing else.
00:40You're, you're, you're, a little odd?
00:42Yeah, yeah, no I was weird.
00:43It was a struggle.
00:44And every day I really thought I was gonna like fit it together.
00:46Like I remember on the first day of school I learned that the kid sitting behind me's
00:49name is Ben.
00:50And so I just went, hi Ben.
00:54Struggling with social anxiety, she started seeing a therapist.
00:59When she started acting in church plays and school musicals, she found a new avenue of
01:04self-expression, setting the stage for her remarkable ascent.
01:08Well that doesn't surprise me that, that she had the courage to do that because she was
01:12determined and um, unflappable.
01:15When she was on stage, all that anxiety suddenly fell away.
01:19So when a talent scout spotted the 14-year-old Jennifer in New York City in 2005, she was
01:24ready to make some big moves.
01:26It was just an overwhelming feeling of, I get this, this is what I was meant to do.
01:31And to get people to try to understand that when you're 14 years old, wanting to drop
01:35out of school and do this and your parents are just like, you're out of your mind.
01:39Her mother allowed her to do some auditions, although she was nonplussed at the idea of
01:44her daughter going into showbiz.
01:46But Lawrence was determined.
01:48I've always had this really gross, dangerous mentality of no consideration of failure.
01:57Just never even considering the thought of failing, like if I want something I just go
02:03until I get it.
02:04She booked several commercials and dropped out of high school.
02:07Realizing that their daughter was in her element and much happier, her folks eventually came
02:12around.
02:13When my parents came and saw the apartment, that was exactly what changed my dad's mind.
02:16There was like no hot water.
02:17My dad was like, she really wants to do this.
02:20Luckily for Lawrence, the industry was quick to recognize her talent.
02:24However, that doesn't mean that it was all offered to her on a silver platter.
02:28You've been living on the streets.
02:30For three months, yeah, but it wasn't always like that.
02:34She began with guest appearances in TV shows like Monk and Medium before becoming a regular
02:39cast member on the Bill Engvall show, playing a rebellious teenage daughter.
02:44It earned her enough praise to keep the work coming, which eventually brought her to Debra
02:48Granik's Winter's Bone.
02:50What are we ever going to do with you, baby girl?
02:56Kill me, I guess.
03:04That idea's been said already.
03:08Got any others?
03:09Help me.
03:11Ain't nobody said that idea yet, have they?
03:13With a role she could really sink her teeth into, Jennifer Lawrence acted her heart out
03:18as Rhi, winning an Oscar nod.
03:20Blockbuster success followed when she morphed into Mystique in X-Men First Class.
03:25A new Hollywood star had been born.
03:27You're an exquisite creature, Raven.
03:30All your life, the world has tried to tame you.
03:34It's time for you to be free.
03:37By the time The Hunger Games rolled around in 2012, everyone, except for probably Jennifer
03:42herself, knew she was kind of a big deal.
03:45Thanks to that movie and its sequels, her character Katniss Everdeen became the most
03:49profitable action heroine in the history of cinema.
03:53Yet according to a 2013 interview with Vanity Fair, she found it all quote, stupid, at least
03:59compared to professions like being a doctor or a firefighter.
04:03Amazing.
04:04I don't feel amazing.
04:07Don't you know how beautiful you look?
04:09No.
04:10The first time she felt like there was a meaningful point to it all, besides getting to do what
04:14she loved, was when she met a young burn victim on set.
04:18The girl had been nicknamed The Girl on Fire, but she had embraced it, inspired by Lawrence's
04:23character Katniss Everdeen.
04:25But do you see that?
04:29Fire is catching.
04:30Jennifer Lawrence's career reached a significant milestone in 2013 when she won the Academy
04:35Award for Best Actress for her role in Silver Linings Playbook.
04:40At 22, she became the second youngest recipient in that category, after Marlee Matlin who
04:46won at 21.
04:47However, there was more where that came from.
04:50The power of intention, Irving.
04:52The power of intention.
04:56Okay.
04:57Okay.
04:58Shortly after her big win, American Hustle and Joy bagged her two more Oscar nominations,
05:03bringing her total to four by the age of 25.
05:07This made her one of the youngest actors to receive multiple Academy Award nominations
05:11within such a short span after her debut.
05:14Well, it's less scary because I did it before, but then it's also like I've done this twice.
05:19Right.
05:20So that's just an incredible feeling.
05:21I can't believe.
05:22Right.
05:23I can't believe this is happening.
05:24By the way, Jennifer Lawrence was scaling unimaginable heights until she fell, literally.
05:29Surprisingly, the internet laughed with her rather than at her when she tripped at the
05:3485th Academy Awards in 2013.
05:37Was that on purpose?
05:38Absolutely.
05:39It wasn't a fault?
05:40What happened?
05:41I don't know.
05:42What do you mean what happened?
05:43Look at my dress.
05:44I tried to walk upstairs in this dress.
05:47That's what happened.
05:48The viral moment shot her to even greater fame, solidifying her position as America's
05:53sweetheart.
05:54Losing balance in high heels and a designer dress was too relatable.
05:58She had become the embodiment of the girl next door.
06:01Awkward but funny, clumsy but charismatic.
06:05What do you think when you look in the mirror?
06:08Um, well, I just, I just, I'm just trying to figure out what to do with what I got.
06:18She didn't represent an unattainable ideal.
06:20Instead, she was entirely within reach.
06:23Like, you could bump into her at a local bar and she wouldn't immediately call security.
06:28Something about that approachability made her all the more endearing.
06:32And then I came to the Oscars.
06:33I'm sorry.
06:34I'm sorry.
06:35I did a shot before I.
06:36Sorry.
06:37Jesus.
06:38And it happened again.
06:39Jennifer Lawrence tripped at the Oscars for a second time in 2014.
06:50This time on the red carpet as she exited her car and stumbled over a traffic cone.
06:55You know I fell the next year too.
06:56What?
06:57So then it just looked like I 100% faked.
06:58I didn't see that.
06:59Edit that out.
07:00Oh, it was awful.
07:01Why did I just say that?
07:02Now everybody's gonna look it back up.
07:03While the moment was initially met with humor, it also sparked skepticism.
07:08Some online commentators accused her of faking the falls for attention.
07:12I was already paranoid.
07:14Like Anderson Cooper was like, she obviously faked it, which I actually reamed him out
07:17at a Christmas party about that.
07:18Right.
07:20You don't, you have no way of knowing it.
07:21I don't have that platform.
07:22But anyway.
07:23Why would you fake that?
07:24He's a very nice guy.
07:25This backlash reflected a growing fatigue with her quirky down-to-earth personality.
07:29Lawrence herself has admitted to cringing at some of her past interviews.
07:33Still, the shift was striking.
07:36She was receiving hate for the very traits that had previously endeared her to millions.
07:41The way people feel changes all the time.
07:44You know, sometimes they're cheering and they're screaming and then other times they see me
07:47get out of my car and they're like, God, I don't know why, but I just hate her.
07:51That same year, Lawrence faced more unwanted attention when she was a victim of the infamous
07:562014 celebrity nude photo leak.
07:58It was a cruel and humiliating crime that resulted in jail time for the culprits.
08:03We know that those celebrities were taking pictures and videos with their phones, with
08:07their iPhones, and they were using iCloud to back up that data to Apple's servers.
08:12And what we now know is that someone was able to breach those iCloud accounts and download
08:16all the intimate photos and other information that was stored on those accounts.
08:21Lawrence was outspoken about the gross violation it represented.
08:25However, other controversies were also brewing.
08:29One concerned her friendly rapport with Harvey Weinstein, whom she once jokingly referred
08:34to as a big teddy bear.
08:36Remarks that were closely scrutinized after revelations of his criminal actions.
08:41Another was her anecdote about using sacred Hawaiian rocks to scratch an itch during the
08:46filming of The Hunger Games.
09:07Then there were the rumors that she had an affair with Chris Pratt while filming Passengers.
09:13The film also made much of her relationship with mother director Darren Aronofsky 21 years
09:18her senior.
09:19These events marked a turning point in public perception, a recipe for PR disaster.
09:25So in an incredibly smart move, she disappeared.
09:44When she returned, the Oscar-winning actress was a changed woman, at least for the cameras.
09:50Exuding a restrained poise we hadn't seen from her before, she had her guard up high.
10:13Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2021, she got candid about feeling disappointed in the quality
10:19of her pre-hiatus work.
10:21However, she also opened up about being on the receiving end of a seemingly endless wave
10:26of criticism.
10:27You know, it's like, it's hard to just kind of like shake it off and go home, but because
10:34it is so personal.
10:36She had needed to get away to prioritize her own mental health.
10:39In the meantime, she got married to art gallery director Cooke Ferroni.
10:44In early 2022, she gave birth to their son.
10:48Although she continued to make the headlines during her break, it was often for her anti-corruption
10:53activism as a member of the organization Represent Us.
10:56We must build a movement, a big movement, comprised of all kinds of people from all
11:02across America fighting to pass anti-corruption laws, and then make sure they are implemented
11:08and protected.
11:09Before we knew it, Jennifer Lawrence was the queen of hearts again, but a more mature version.
11:14She didn't feed into tabloid gossip, treasured her privacy, and ventured into production
11:19with her company Excellent Cadaver.
11:21Obviously, the first thing that we wanted to do was what the Taliban did not want us
11:25to do, which was get a camera into Kabul and into the hands of these women, so that we
11:31can see what is happening, what they're doing.
11:34But no longer just the cool girl, Jen came into her identity as a serious artist, using
11:40her platform to make the world a better place.
11:43Now, she wants the spotlight on her work, her activism, and philanthropy, rather than
11:48her personal life.
11:50It's just a responsibility of anybody that I feel like has an opportunity to be in the
11:54spotlight or who people are listening to, to just shine light where the focus actually
12:02really needs to be to benefit our future, hopefully.
12:06What is your favorite Jennifer Lawrence movie?
12:08Tell us in the comments.
12:09How do you make people like you?
12:11Well, you made me like you.
12:12That's different.
12:13I wasn't trying.
12:14Exactly.
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12:32Thanks for watching.
12:33Bye.
12:34Bye.