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las vegas — Jennifer Lawrence has wanted to do a big comedy for years. On her TV shows, she is always funny and full of energy. While she brought humor and physical comedy to many of her roles, David O. Russell and others, she also didn’t quite get the big, wide-ranging “Dumb and Dumber” or “Anchor ’ experience, citing some of her favorites (or at least the ones she remembers).
This changes this summer and” don’t take it to heart (out June 23), a classic, raunchy R-rated comedy made for her.
“I’ve always wanted to do a comedy. I read a lot,” Lawrence told The Associated Press in Las Vegas last week. “I just didn’t read anything interesting enough.”
“No Hard Feelings” was inspired by real Craigslist ads posted by parents looking for a woman to “date” their son to get him out of trouble the summer before he leaves for college. There’s debate about the veracity of “real ads,” but considering the women who might answer such ads is an interesting premise, enough to get the attention of several producers and writer-director Gene Stupnitsky.
Stupnitsky, an Emmy-nominated alumnus of The Office who also directed and co-wrote 2019’s hit “Good Boys,” knows who to bring it to. He shared the idea with Lawrence one night over dinner with friends, who, he estimates, “drank about eight or nine martinis between us.”
The two met more than a decade ago through a mutual friend in various Middle Ages. Lawrence, he remembered, was in full wizard attire. They quickly became true friends. He even introduced Lawrence to her husband.
“I owe him one,” Lawrence said. “That’s why I made this movie.”
Stupnitsky, who sat next to Lawrence, added: “There might be some truth to that.”
With Lawrence a star and a producer, the movie became a hot commodity, with streaming services and studios vying to make it. In the end, they settled on Sony and traditional theatrical distribution.
“The reason I wrote this movie for her is because I know how funny she is, and I want other people to know. I mean, people know she’s funny, but they want her in comedy. I think, yeah Yes, I know what to do. I know how to write her voice,” Stupnitsky said. “I remember telling her, ‘I really want you to experience what it’s like to sit in a theater and have hundreds of people laughing.’ She’s had many, many experiences with film, but she hasn’t quite had this one yet. “
In “No Hard Feelings,” Lawrence’s character, Maddie, has trouble with money. As an Uber driver without a car, she was caught in a pressing dilemma. So when she found the ad promising a Buick Regal as payment, she was hooked. In the clip, which Sony debuted for theater owners at CinemaCon last week, Maddy meets 19-year-old Percy (Andrew Bart Feldman) for the first time in a slim pink miniskirt and heels , came across as openly flirtatious and easy-going.
“She was dressed like what she thought was a 19-year-old sexual fantasy. She was wrong,” Stupnitsky said. “He was like a child she couldn’t seduce.”
The situation escalated from there when she tried to drive him home. He thinks he’s been kidnapped, and, as anyone who’s seen the Red Band trailer knows, it ends with her being pepper-sprayed. But the film also has a sweet heart.
“He’s hungry for a connection, and that’s what she needs, but she doesn’t know it yet,” Stupnitsky said. “She wanted to get the car and get on with her life. But he forced her to slow down and get to know him and get close to him in a sort of platonic way.”
Lawrence said the experience was a blast, thanks to her bond with her young co-star.
“We laughed all day,” she said. “Sometimes I’ll be in bed after get off work and giggle before I go to bed just thinking about the day. I’m also sad about doing it because I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I just won’t do it again. There’s these. It’s so unique.’”
As the film’s producer, Lawrence has set out to watch the film with audiences and experience the kind of laughs that Stupnitsky promised.
“I went to the test screening and sat in the back,” she said. “It’s very special.”
Every movie is a gamble, she knows, but she has faith in “No Hard Feelings.”
“You really never know. You might think the audience wants this, but they don’t. I certainly have experience with that,” she said. “It’s a combination of instinct and looking at the information you have. I know we have the funniest movie anyone has ever seen – I have no doubts about that – and I know Gene can do it people.”
This is also the first time Lawrence has been released in major theaters in several years, following 2019’s X-Men film “Dark Phoenix.”Her most recent movies are mostly streaming on Netflix “Don’t look up” and Apple’s “Causeway Bay”, She also gave birth.
“I think the audience really remembers why they loved her,” Stupnitsky said.
“I look better at 12 feet,” laughs Lawrence.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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