Interview - Jennifer Lawrence on Winter’s Bone

By Anne Brodie Jun 20, 2010, 15:39 GMT

Seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) sets out to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, Ree and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods. Challenging her outlaw kin\'s code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth. Based ...more

Nineteen year old American actress Jennifer Lawrence grew up fast on the Ozark Mountain set of the multi-award winning drama Winter’s Bone.  She plays girl forced to care for her ill mother and siblings when their father disappears.  If he doesn’t show up for his court date, they will lose their home and winter is approaching and they have no money or food. 

 Ree sets off to find him through a criminal underworld maze.  Lawrence learned to skin squirrels, chop wood, and fight for the film, and she learned a lot about the power of poverty to destroy people, even in the heart of the richest country in the world. 

Monsters and Critics - Did seeing first hand how some of the people in the Ozarks live make you empathetic?

Jennifer Lawrence - I never felt sorry for them.  I know it’s different to us but that’s their lives there.  So I never felt sorry.  They’re perfectly happy and we might think it’s weird and different but they don’t understand us, like the way our families don’t eat together.

M&C – The people are isolated and closed off as we learn.  Did you get to know them?

JL - I did.  We were shooting there, right in their communities.  I met them all and spent a lot off time.  It’s very different. We weren’t intruding, though.  We were making a movie about hillbillies but if we cast them in a certain light or wanted to typecast or make them cliches it would feel like we intruded, but they knew exactly what we were doing.  We screened it for them and they were pleased.

M&C There seems to be a strict code of familial conduct in that world based on blood ties, especially in its criminal elements.

JL - I got to learn about the heirarchy of the families.  Whe I got there I didn’t know much.  But it’s not a bad life.  People stay there for a reason.  If you were Ree and in her situation, they wouldn’t seem like monsters.  It’s honestly different.  We have monsters in our families.  I have an aunt who is a shopaholic!

M&C - How did you picture Ree in your head aside from the script and directors suggestions?

JL - It was all instinctual.  I couldn’t put it into words because it would sound like b.s.  I thought she was strong and stubborn and she didn’t take no for an answer.  She sees things fairly.

M&C - You’re in every scene, that’s a huge responsibility for such a young actress in such a demanding drama.  Do you feel like you have been through a graduate programme in acting?

JL - It was hard and we had hard hours but I never felt like I was carrying the movie when I was shooting.  The night shoots were really cold, but you know, we got the Sundance Grand Jury prize!

M&C - There is such incredible, unrelieved intensity in the story.  How did you feel when it was over?

JL - Watching the movie was really different for me.  I’m not wondering what she’s going to do next, but I do feel the same effect if I were just watching a movie.  It makes you think differently, trying to come up with answers and make everything okay in your head. 

M&C - John Hawkes play Teardrop, your crack addicted uncle who tries to help you.  The two of you are superb together.

JL - Oh my gosh, it was such an honour to work with him.  He’s incredible and deep and he’s the sweetest man in the entire world.  I can’t even find words for how smart he is and how much I respect and admire him. 

M&C - You just finished making The Beaver with Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster.  How as that?

JL - It’s incredibly different.  It’s a weird kind of a dark comedy, kind of hard to describe.  I love it so much.  My character is closer to normal than anyone else I’ve played.  Jodie is the most normal person I’ve met since I was in this business.  She’s brilliant, and a real mom and I adore her.  I adore Mel.  He’s sweet and nice and funny and great in this movie.

M&C - He’s famous for pulling pranks.  Did he get you?

JL - He did mental pranks on me.  He’d say “You didn’t hear they cut that scene?  And I’d say why did they cut it?  He’s say ‘They probably hired another actress!”

M&C - Next you’re doing a horror film, 'House at the End of the Street'?

JL - Yes, it’s kind of Hitchcockian, intense.

M&C - How do you feel about fame?  

JL - I’ve always told my publicity people that anytime I am on TV or in a magazine it has to be because I’m talking about a movie, not how I lost my head in two weeks.  I’m not going to do that!  It would be hell not going to the grocery and having your picture taken all the time.  It’s crazy to seek that out.  Making movies isn’t a choice for me; I have to make movies because I love acting.  But I wouldn’t do interviews if I didn’t have to!