Jennifer Lawrence has enjoyed one of those careers that articles like this love to summarise. It follows a pretty familiar trajectory: enormous success at a young age, backlash from the press, a period of decline, and a big comeback. Considering she’s only in her mid-30s (another fact writers love to bust out), there’s still a lot of the story left to be written, but it’s already been a hell of a ride for the woman from Indian Hills, Kentucky.
Before she made it big, Lawrence appeared in a number of supporting roles, including in the 2013 movie The Beaver. Directed by Jodie Foster, the film follows the story of a high-flying CEO (Mel Gibson) who helps overcome his depression by communicating through a hand puppet. Lawrence plays Norah, the love interest of the main character’s son, played by the late Anton Yelchin.
Speaking with Collider in 2013, following her rise to mainstream success through X-Men: First Class and The Hunger Games, Lawrence cast her mind back to those early days. She was particularly fond of working with Foster. “She actually gave me so much hope,” the future Oscar winner recalled. “There are so many people that are famous and they’re really nice, but they’re not normal. And I met her, and it was like she just had no idea that she was famous. She’s someone who’s been working since she was two. It just gave me so much hope. I was like, ‘Okay, I can do this. I can be a normal person.” That was probably the biggest gift that she could have given me.”
If anyone had any right to fly off the handle because of their career, it was Jodie Foster. She infamously appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver at the age of 14, playing a child prostitute. This was the main inspiration for an assassination attempt against US President Ronald Raegan in 1981. Being able to stay normal after that should be commended.
In addition to offering a template for her personal life, Foster was also able to provide her young star with some insight from her own days in front of the camera. “What I like about working with an actress, as a director, is that she’s not afraid of actors,” Lawrence continued. “People tip-toe around actors like they’re emotional land mines, which is probably right, but I always find that annoying because I grew up with sports, and I just want someone to tell me what I’m doing wrong. That’s just so much easier. She was very blunt about things like that. She would just be like, ‘Talk louder. Do this.’ I like that a lot.”
At the age of just 21, making a movie with such big names should have launched Lawrence’s career to the next level. Unfortunately, promotion for the film coincided with Gibson’s very public fall from grace. The Beaver absolutely tanked at the box office and threatened to derail Lawrence’s ascent. Fortunately for her, X-Men was released just three months later, with The Hunger Games coming out the following year.
Lawrence is far too talented to have had her potential scuppered by one man’s idiotic behaviour. She was able to overcome this hurdle and become a huge star, thanks in at least some part to Foster’s nurturing hand.
