Jennifer Lawrence’s Most Famous Role Almost Didn’t Happen Until Her Mom Stepped In

Lawrence was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Winter’s Bone in 2010, but her role as Katniss Everdeen in 2012’s The Hunger Games made her a big-time star. However, Lawrence nearly turned down her breakout role. She had previously worked mainly on indie films, was reluctant to take on a major studio franchise and the spotlight that came with it.

But Lawrence wanted to play the part, and decided to do the film after some tough love from her mother.

While it’s not exactly uncommon for celebs to ditch school to pursue an acting career, Lawrence graduated early instead. She completed her high school education in two years, with an impressive 3.9 GPA.

According to Lawrence, she had a difficult time in high school due to social anxiety. Her nickname was “Nitro,” short for “Nitroglycerin,” and she describes herself as hyperactive and curious. When Lawrence began acting at age 14, she felt she’d found her niche, but had to graduate before she could pursue it full time.

In 2015, England’s Prince Harry allegedly had a crush on Lawrence. Press outlets reported that had an aide ask her on a date to see Kensington Palace, but she declined. Maybe Lawrence said no because she was in an on-again off-again relationship with Coldplay’s Chris Martin at the time, or perhaps she just wasn’t interested.

For a scene in Winter’s Bone, Lawrence kept it authentic by actually killing and skinning a squirrel – a move that earned her some criticism from PETA. She learned how to do it from a friend of her brother’s, but afterwards, she said, “I went and cried in the house and let him finish.”

She also learned how to fight and chop wood for the film.

You have to start somewhere, and Lawrence’s somewhere was a pair of promos for the MTV reality show My Super Sweet Sixteen. She even earned her SAG card for the role, which she landed when she was 14 years old.

Lawrence auditioned to play the role of Bella Swan in Twilight when she was 17 years old. She described it as “just another audition,” and said she didn’t realize the impact of Twilight until the film came out. After that, Lawrence was happy she didn’t actually land the role and all the baggage that came with it.

Other major roles she auditioned for? Jules in Superbad, which went to Emma Stone, and Lisbeth Salander in Girl With A Dragon Tattoo, which went to Rooney Mara.

Before booking regular acting roles, Lawrence landed a modeling gig with teen clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. But none of her photos were selected to appear in the store or the catalogue. Lawrence apparently over-committed to the shoot, which involved playing football on a beach.

Rather than playing “pretty” football, Lawrence recalls being red-faced and covered in sweat, joking that one model asked the crew to “get her away from me.”

Lawrence has starred alongside a number of Hollywood hunks, so the tabloids were bound to fictionalize a relationship between her and at least one of them. After her publicist informed her that a magazine was going to say she was having an affair with either Bradley Cooper or Sam Claflin, she picked Bradley Cooper to avoid upsetting Claflin’s fiancée.

Lawrence’s pension for accidents doesn’t end with those red carpet trips. In 2012, Lawrence rear-ended a family’s car in Georgia because she thought she saw reality TV star Honey Boo Boo. As she told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, she was driving by a breast cancer parade and mistook the word “boobs” for “boo boo.”

She was straining to catch a better look when she got in the fender bender.

Because Lawrence was discovered so suddenly, her acting career took off before she’d had the chance to do any formal training. But that’s what made her unique. When Lawrence finally did go to an acting coach, he told her not to take classes or see teachers, because they would just make her acting “like everybody else.”