Jennifer Lawrence Agreed To Her No Hard Feelings Nude Scene For One Reason
In the 2023 comedy "No Hard Feelings," Jennifer Lawrence does something that not many actors are bold enough to do — she goes fully nude without the help of a body double. Beyond that, the scene in question is a delightfully ridiculous one ... which is precisely why the actress agreed to do it in the first place.
Lawrence and her "No Hard Feelings" co-star Andrew Barth Feldman spoke to Variety that year about the movie, and as the Oscar-winner revealed, the people in her life thought that perhaps doing the scene would be the wrong move. "Everyone in my life and my team is doing the right thing and going, 'Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure?'" Lawrence recalled before concluding, "I didn't even have a second thought. It was hilarious to me."
To be fair to Lawrence, it is hilarious. In the scene, Lawrence's character Maddie — who has been paid by the parents of Feldman's Percy to seduce their son before college — entices Percy into skinny-dipping in the ocean, only to find that some local jerks have stolen their clothes when they leave the water. Maddie, undeterred, fights them all off completely naked; when they leave and Percy and Maddie fight, he throws herself on her car, also completely naked, to stop her from leaving.
"Every situation that these characters end up in, you're laughing your butt off," Feldman, who deferred from Harvard to appear in the movie, told the outlet. "We became so close instantly that nothing ever felt weird or unsafe. It was entirely professional."
"Even when I put my T-shirt over your head and motor-boated you? You felt safe?" Lawrence shot back, clearly joking, to which Feldman coolly replied, "I felt it was an exclusively sterile and professional environment."
Despite its raunchiest scenes, Jennifer Lawrence felt drawn to No Hard Feelings
In a different interview with People Magazine, Jennifer Lawrence echoed her comments about the wild nude scene in "No Hard Feelings." According to her, she just went fot it: "I took a deep breath and then I disrobed,"
As Andrew Barth Feldman said in the same interview, preparing to show everything on-screen is "definitely a weird and uncomfortable thing to do for any human being on the planet Earth," but also said he didn't worry. "But it was so incredibly safe," Feldman clarified. "Everyone was so kind, constantly checking in that we were okay." Feldman, apparently, also dove headfirst into the scene like Lawrence; as he revealed, "I never second guessed it. Much like everything in this movie, you just have to do it, and then it will be done." ("Because you're being forced to," Lawrence quipped.)
Despite the totally out-there scene that required both Feldman and Lawrence to strip down, the former "Hunger Games" star and four time Academy Award nominee told Entertainment Weekly that director Gene Stupnitsky sold her on "No Hard Feelings" by reading a very real Craigslist ad upon which the script was ultimately based. When Stupnitsky and John Phillips eventually showed her the script she tells EW that it was "the funniest script I've ever read in my life."
"I guess I like cringe humor," Lawrence concluded. "I do like the idea of comedy that makes people uncomfortable. I love when people are watching through their hands, through their fingers. Nothing makes me happier."
No Hard Feelings marked a career resurgence for Jennifer Lawrence
In spite of the audacious nude scene in "No Hard Feelings" — or perhaps because of just how bold it was — the film marked a major return to form for Jennifer Lawrence, who took some time out of the spotlight after a meteoric rise to stardom beginning around 2010. That year, Lawrence appeared in Debra Granik's gritty drama "Winter's Bone," which immediately established her as a major Hollywood player and landed the actress her first Oscar nomination. By 2012, she was appearing in the "X-Men" franchise as Mystique and playing the lead role of Katniss Everdeen in the "Hunger Games" movies — and in that very same year, she won her first Academy Award thanks to her role as a fiery young widow in David O. Russell's critical darling "Silver Linings Playbook."
After a series of films met with more middling critical and commercial success like "Joy," "Mother!" (directed by her then-boyfriend Darren Aronofsky), "Red Sparrow," and "Dark Phoenix," Lawrence took some time away from the spotlight. She and her husband, art collector Cooke Maroney, welcomed a child in 2022, and she's appeared in recent high-profile movies like "Don't Look Up" and "Causeway." Now, in the aftermath of "No Hard Feelings," audiences know just how funny Lawrence can be ... and just how bold of a performance she'll give in a comedy.