With the theatrical release of Joy on the horizon, the cast and crew are gearing up for the promotional tour. The film was screened on Saturday, with a Q&A that followed. Star Jennifer Lawrence took the time to expound on her experience working with director David O. Russell and how the project compares to their previous two projects, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Joy also marks Russell’s first film with a female protagonist, and also the first of Jennifer Lawrence’s characters “who’s not crazy.”
Despite Russell being notoriously difficult to work with, he and Lawrence seem to have built the ideal creative partnership, with Lawrence informing him that “I’ll do anything with you until you die” during the Q&A. Frequent collaborator Robert De Niro also explained that Joy was born out of “our growth together in the past five years.”
Lawrence also took the time to discuss the weight of playing a powerful matriarch over the course of 30 years, calling Joy a tribute “to women who are the unsung heroes of their household,” and how her character, Joy Mangano, “had a fire and a gift that she had buried for 17 years.”
From Winter’s Bone to The Hunger Games, Lawrence has a knack for portraying women as forces of nature, and Joy will likely continue that trend.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
