Drew Barrymore: I’ve just been in the vegetable garden, my hands are still dirty. How are you?
Jennifer Lawrence: I’m fine. I just drank three cups of coffee and am a bit jittery now.
DB: I know what you mean. I’ve switched to ice tea to reduce my caffeine intake.
JL: I’d die without coffee.
DB: I know, coffee helps to make the worst situations bearable. Where are you at the moment?
JL: In Minnesota, in my hotel room.
DB: I’m so excited that I get to interview you.
JL: I’m so glad that you were willing to do so. Jodie Foster interviewed me in my previous
Interview spread, but that was for the American edition.
DB: I recently met her in a restaurant, my whole body was shaking. She’s amazing. I’ve admired her my entire life…
JL: …and then you meet her and she is so normal. And wonderful. And nice. As if she didn’t even know that she’s our idol.
DB: I always like that the best. There is nothing worse than meeting one of your heroes and then be disappointed by them.
JL: I know. I’ve just met John Stamos, you know, the uncle of the Olsens’ in
Full House. I had a little breakdown because I was so excited. He was so charming – if he hadn’t been charming, I would have never recovered from that. It would have ruined my life. Can you imagine: you meet Uncle Jesse and he ISN’T nice?
DB: I recently realized that John Stamos is alarmingly good-looking, he has aged well. And in a very natural way, without any plastic surgery. He hasn’t aged at all.
JL: Absolutely. He was looking so good that I turned into a dirty guy. I was starring at his *ss the whole time. I usually never do that.
DB: You’re starring at his *ss and you feel like a man and not like a woman? That’s interesting.
JL: I had the urge to grab his *ss and be like: “Hey man, what’s up?”
DB: You should’ve done it. I’m sure he would’ve loved it…
JL: …or hewould’ve slapped me in the face…
DB: …but that can also be fun. I’ve read in one of your interviews that you can be quite possessive when it comes to the characters you want to play. You said you often felt like only you really understood them.
JL: Yeah, it may sound a little strange and artsy fartsy, but sometimes I feel like the characters are my soul mates. And by that I don’t mean that I think that I’m the best actress – there are thousands that know more about acting than me. But every now and then I feel like I know and understand a character so well that I can speak for them without it sounding fake or contrived. But that only happens very rarely. So when it happens, I really want to play the part.
DB: When I read that I immediately fell in love with you. I feel exactly the same way. As an actress you know that there are many ways to play a character. But then you read a script and think to yourself: oh please, don’t let that girl look like a victim; she’s strong, I know she is strong. Or: she’s funny and full of life and if someone should dare portray her as being depressive and nasty, you will get in trouble with me.
JL: Yeah, you fall in love with your characters and then you start to imagine all the ways they could be wronged. That was the case when I met Gary Ross, the director of
THG, and I told him: “I completely understand when you think I’m the wrong person for this part. But whoever gets it, you mustn’t allow her to make Katniss seem too cool. Although she has to be strong when she shoots her opponents, she’s also sad, desperate and scared. There mustn’t be a single moment in the whole movie in which she isn't aware of the fact that she could be killed herself.”
DB: If you’ve read a script and know you really want the part, do you get calm or restless so that you can’t sleep all night because you know you will have to fight hard to get the part?
JL: I’m usually calm, but it’s a strange feeling. On the one hand I’m happy that I found this special character, a soul mate, if you wanna call it that. But at the same time I also know that there’s not much I can do to really get to play the part, at least not immediately. Somehow I manage to turn off my mind. I get something to eat and lay down on the couch.
DB: You lie down on the couch to eat – I love you, you’re amazing. You’re everything I want in a man.
JL: Exactly, every time my friends come over, we’re lying on the couch, eat and drink and think: that’s what you imagine a good marriage to be like.
DB: Totally, I feel the same way…peanut butter or marmalade?
JL: Peanut butter.
DB: Great.
JL: Are there even people who only eat marmalade? Without anything on top?
DB: Yeah, me. I recently had to, I was practically forced to.
JL: Why were you forced to eat marmalade?
DB: I had guests over for lunch, it was like a Thai-pasta-peanut butter-extravaganza, in the end there was no peanut butter left. And then, a couple of days later, I was craving something sweet and the only thing left was strawberry marmalade from the Chateau Marmont. I put it on a toast. It was good.
JL
h, on toast. Toast changes everything, of course I also like marmalade on toast. But I can eat peanut butter without toast, right out of the glass.
DB: Right? I would love to jump naked into a jar of peanut butter, that would make my day.
JL: When I get my first big check, I want to bathe in a swimming pool full of pasta. Until I can afford that, I’ll stay in my two room apartment and stock up on pasta.
DB: How do you like pasta the best?
JL: With Bolognese sauce, very simple.
DB: I’m currently obsessed with
ramen those Japanese noodle soups…
JL: Oh my god, I hadn’t even thought about those.
Ramen with chicken, of course, so good.
DB: When I’m in a place I’m not familiar with I google where to find good
ramen.
JL: I buy mine at the liquor store around the corner. It’s perfect, there’s alcohol and good
ramen. Thinking about it, I shouldn’t move away.
DB: Where do you live anyway?
JL: In Santa Monica.
DB: Would you rather fly around in the sky like a bird or swim in the depths of the ocean like a fish?
JL: Fly like a bird. However, I think it would be much more interesting to watch fish in the ocean than see the world from a bird’s perspective – I bet you’ll get bored after a while. But still, I’d rather fly than swim. It’s complicated. I should be a flying fish.
DB: Imagine to be living in a novel: which male character would you like to be and which female character?
JL: Goodness…for a second I was thinking about a JD Salinger novel, but that’s obviously stupid, nobody would like to live in a Salinger novel.
DB: Because it’s too existential?
JL: Yeah, and add to that the 50s, that's not for me. For some reason I can only think of people I wouldn’t want to be. For example the mother in
We need to talk about Kevin. How about that? I would like to be Jesus from the bible. And Kitty from
Anna Karenina. I like how she manages to not look at life as a problem, but to take it without any drama and complications. I admire people like that, who don’t get thrown off the tracks by anything.
. There is something about that pose and hair that reminds me of her.
