Jennifer Lawrence has had a fascinating career already, breaking out in a big way with The Hunger Games and then becoming an Oscars darling with the likes of Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. After a career hiatus, she has come roaring back in the last few years to re-restablish herself as one of Hollywood’s best actors.
No Hard Feelings is something completely different. The R-rated comedy stars Lawrence as a woman who answers a Craigslist advert placed by parents who want someone to date their socially inept son before he heads off to college.
Incredibly, this premise is at least partially inspired by real events. But, like all of the best movies based on a true story, they’ve embellished it a little.
Director and co-writer Gene Stupnitsky told Entertainment Weekly that the idea for the story came from a real Craiglist ad he was sent by the movie’s producers. “I read it, and I thought: ‘This is wild. Who is the woman that answers this ad?’ And I thought: ‘Oh, that’ll be a great role for my friend Jennifer Lawrence’.”
According to Lawrence, he was right. She said: “Gene read the Craigslist ad to me, and I died laughing. I thought it was hilarious, but there wasn’t a script or anything. I just thought he had a funny idea. And then a couple years later, he handed me the funniest script I’ve ever read in my life.”
Lawrence certainly thought its sensibility was dead-on for her.
She said: “I guess I like cringe humour. I do like the idea of comedy that makes people uncomfortable. I love when people are watching through their hands, through their fingers. Nothing makes me happier. And I love a lot of the stuff that Harold Ramis did, his movies.”