At least not yet. But some people want it to, and they’re using an insignificant award show as a catalyst. Last night, Jennifer “The Human GIF Machine” Lawrence won Best Supporting Actress at the New York Film Critics Circle for her role as a reckless housewife in American Hustle, which promises to be, at the very least, the most ass-slappiest movie of the year. Her win inspired confused tweets like, “The Jennifer Lawrence backlash on Twitter is real. I mean, I don’t think she should’ve won either, but that doesn’t make the #NYFCC racist.” And on the same day, Vulture asked, “Is Jennifer Lawrence Katniss-ing Us?” which, no, not really, but let’s hear them out.
In effect, Lawrence is giving the people what they want — by reminding us that what we want is bogus. And all it takes to do that is to be someone who colors just a tiny bit out of the lines. Her talking points are “no talking points.” She’ll interrupt a ludicrous red-carpet double-team from both MTV and VH-1 by talking about how much she wants to eat French fries. She’ll answer a question about “the process” by which she gets dressed by shrugging and saying she got dressed. Ultimately, she soldiers on, despite the knowledge that a backlash is waiting somewhere off in the distance, just out of sight: “I feel like I’m becoming way too much,” she said recently. “Everybody is very fickle. They like me now, but I’m going to get really annoying really fast.”
Katniss and J.Law are a wonderful alignment of artist and repertoire. When she learns that she’ll once again be called back into the arena for the Quarter Quell, it looks as if Katniss is going to hightail it and run. Ultimately, despite her anger and frustration, she’s back in the training facility with her bow and arrow. Lawrence gives off the vibe of a woman annoyed by the endless repetition of a press tour, but she exploits it to perpetuate her status as a movie star that is nonetheless “real.” Will continued scrutiny ever show that this lack of act is, indeed, just an act? Is Lawrence Katniss-ing us? And if so, how much longer until people get tired of the show? There are two more Hunger Games movies to go. (Via)
Or maybe, just maybe, we, as a society, are tired of hearing the same sensitized quotes from the same blandly attractive actors and actresses, and what J-Law is doing is exactly what we’d do if we were famous. Press tours sound mentally exhausting, traveling from city to city, hotel to hotel, having to field the same questions about YOUR PROCESS from faceless journalists; Lawrence is the rare celebrity who can exploit the process while still “playing the game.” Maybe what she’s doing is slightly exaggerated; then again, maybe she is a “normal celebrity,” someone who knows she’s incredibly attractive but not gorgeous in a conventional movie star sense, someone who tells poop stories after the cameras stop rolling, someone who if she wasn’t famous and GIFs weren’t being made of her, she’d be on Tumblr, making them for other actresses. Is demanding pizza an act? If so, then NOTHING IS REAL.
We so want to be the FIRST person who hates someone everyone loves that we never stop to think, yeah, she’s one hell of an actress. Team J-Law.