Jennifer Lawrence on No Hard Feelings: ‘It really is hard to make a comedy where you’re not offending people’
Jennifer Lawrence became a household name after being cast as lead character Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games films.
She went on to become at one point the highest paid actress in the world, with an awards collection including an Oscar, BAFTA and multiple Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe trophies.
After focusing on dramas, Lawrence is now leading a comedy for the first time – and not a family friendly one.
Andrew Barth Feldman plays teenager Percy alongside Lawrence’s Maddie. Pic: Sony Pictures
In No Hard Feelings, she plays Maddie, a broke Uber driver who responds to an advert from two parents looking for a woman to date – and sleep with – their introverted teenage son.
While it’s rated a 15 in the UK, the film is an R in the US – which means anyone under the age of 17 would need to be accompanied by an adult to see it in the cinema – and is being billed as the return of R rated comedies to theatres.
Lawrence told Sky News she thinks the world needs comedy at the moment – and if audiences find some of the content offensive, then maybe that’s a good thing.
“I think it’s time for just a good old-fashioned laugh,” she said. “And it really is hard to make a comedy where you’re not offending people. Everybody in some sense will be offended by this film – you’re welcome.”
Lawrence’s co-star Andrew Barth Feldman – who plays Percy, the teenager Maddie is being paid to seduce – agrees.
“We need to be able to engage with being offended,” he said. “There was and is like a big overcorrect because we realised there were so many things that we were joking about that we shouldn’t be… and I think this movie does a really good job of continuing to push limits while still engaging with the conversation that the things that these people are doing are wrong, and not a good idea.”
“Something we learned from the old-time comedies is mean comedy is not really funny,” Lawrence added. “You know, making somebody feel bad about themselves – other than me making fun of me. But the way that we did it is fine, we figured it out.”
Lawrence had been looking for the chance to explore her funny side on screen for a while. “I was definitely always open to a comedy,” she said. “I wouldn’t say I was like: ‘I really want my character to try to have sex with a young person’, but I just read it and it was the funniest thing I’d ever read.”
Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti star as Percy’s parents. Pic: Sony Pictures
No Hard Feelings was actually inspired by a real advert on US listings site Craigslist, which Lawrence and writer/director Gene Stupnitsky found themselves discussing over dinner one night.
“He showed me the Craigslist ad and we were just laughing about it,” she said. “Our whole dinner was just talking about the kind of people who would write the ad – and so that’s kind of in my mind where I thought he would go with the movie.”
But rather than the parents, the film focuses on Maddie and Percy – the teenage son of an overprotective mother and father, who seemingly has no interest in dating.
While Percy’s an extreme case, Barth Feldman found plenty to relate to in the character.
“My generation – and we see this so much with Percy – we’re the first generation that was born with iPhones in our hands,” he said. “And so there is just a sense of compulsion and fear and comparison that is so constant with us.
“[Percy] is stuck in this bubble – the world outside is all on his phone and his parents want to bubble-wrap him and he hates it, but it’s safe for him; but he needs to break out, he needs to learn that he can make his own decisions and truthfully, put the phone down for a little bit.”
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No Hard Feelings isn’t the only film Lawrence has been promoting lately, having also appeared at the Cannes film festival in May for the documentary Bread And Roses, which she co-produced.
The film looks at the women living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan and is something of a passion project for Lawrence.
“You watch it on the news and you know that it’s just going to eventually fade out of the news and I didn’t want these women’s lives to just be a quick story that everybody forgets about,” she said. “So I spoke to my producing partner about how to get cameras in a Taliban-run Afghanistan, and we found Sahra Mani, who is an Afghan filmmaker, and we told her this is what we want to do.
“Obviously it was extremely dangerous for her and for the three women that participated… and thanks to Sahra and these amazing women’s courage, we have this footage that hopefully will explain and put more light on women’s suffrage in Afghanistan, which is just unbelievable.”
No Hard Feelings is out in cinemas in the UK from Wednesday 21 June
A woman who saw a man falling from an upper tier at Wembley Stadium says a similar incident at an Oasis concert over the weekend in which a fan died makes her wonder whether lessons have been learned.
Stephanie Good, 39, said a man fell during a Euro 2020 match between England and Croatia at Wembley in June 2021.
He landed “right next to where we were” on the “stairwell between rows of seats”, she said.
Named as Jon, he reportedly survived but suffered two broken ankles, a fractured femur and fractured pelvis just before kick-off.
Ms Good said she tried to give feedback but was unable to and felt the “emergency response was really lacking”.
Oasis, meanwhile, said they were “shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic death of a fan” at their Wembley concert on Saturday.
The man reportedly fell from the stadium’s upper tier.
In his 40s, he was found with “injuries consistent with a fall” and pronounced dead at the scene, the Met Police said.
Ms Good, an NHS manager from east London, said what happened at the Oasis gig was “so similar” to what she witnessed that it made her wonder “were lessons learned”?
Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage for the first Wembley night of the Oasis reunion tour. Pic: Lewis Evans
During that incident, among stadium staff “nobody seemed to know what to do”, she told the Press Association.
She thinks the man may have been trying to attach a flag to the front of a stand and “somehow managed to fall straight over”.
She said: “They (staff) didn’t seem well-trained in terms of how to respond to a really big emergency.
“Their stewards were kind of paralysed a little bit by fear, or they just weren’t well trained and didn’t know how to call for paramedics.
“It was us who were sort of shouting at them that they needed to get some paramedics.
“The first person on the scene wasn’t a stadium paramedic or St John Ambulance. It was an off-duty firefighter who had seen the guy fall and ran down to just try and offer some help.”
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Regarding the follow-up, Ms Good said staff moved spectators to other seats but did not ask for witness statements.
She added: “They didn’t seek any input from people who’d seen the incident or the aftermath of it. They didn’t seem interested in speaking to anybody about it.
“I was a bit concerned, because I felt that the emergency response was really lacking.”
She then tried to get in touch to give feedback, but was unable to do so and did not receive a response to a message on social media, she said.
A Wembley spokesperson said: “Wembley Stadium operates to a very high health and safety standard, fully meeting legal requirements for the safety of spectators and staff, and is certified to and compliant with the ISO 45001 standard.
“We work very closely and collaboratively with all relevant event delivery stakeholders – including event owners, local authorities, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority and the police – to deliver events to high standards of safety, security and service for everyone attending or working in the venue.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been denied bail ahead of his sentencing on prostitution-related charges.
Judge Arun Subramanian said the hip-hop mogul had failed to show sufficient evidence he is not a flight risk and also cited admissions of previous violence made during his trial.
Combs, 55, has been in prison since his arrest in September last year.
During a two-month trial, jurors heard allegations that he had coerced former girlfriends, including singer and model Cassie Ventura, into having drug-fuelled sex marathons with male sex workers, while he watched and filmed them.
Diddy fell to his knees after the verdict was delivered last month. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
In July, he was found guilty of two counts of transportation for prostitution – but cleared of more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking, which carried potential life sentences.
The rapper’s legal team hailed this a “victory” and immediately applied for bail ahead of sentencing, citing his acquittal on the top charges.
After this was denied, they submitted another application last week. Judge Subramanian has now rejected the request again.
In denying the motion for bail, the judge found Combs had failed to show sufficient evidence to counter arguments he is a flight risk, writing in a court filing: “Increasing the amount of the bond or devising additional conditions doesn’t change the calculus given the circumstances and heavy burden of proof that Combs bears.”
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He also found that an argument by the music star’s legal team that the squalor and danger of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), where he is being held, did not warrant release.
“The public outcry concerning these conditions has come from all corners,” the judge wrote. “But as Combs acknowledges, MDC staff has been able to keep him safe and attend to his needs, even during an incident of threatened violence from an inmate.”
As well as Combs’s bail application, his legal team has also filed a motion calling for him to be acquitted or given a new trial on the prostitution-related charges only.
The judge has not yet responded to this application.
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How the Diddy trial unfolded
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Combs is due to be sentenced on 3 October and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Discussions on sentencing guidelines which followed the jury’s verdict suggest it is unlikely he will be jailed for this long, with an estimate of around two to five years, taking into account time already served.
However, it is ultimately up to Judge Arun Subramanian to decide the rapper’s punishment.
On Friday, Donald Trump was asked during an interview about a potential pardon for Combs following speculation about the issue.
The president said it was unlikely, adding that the rapper was “very hostile” during his presidential campaign.
Combs, who co-founded Bad Boy Records and launched the career of the late Notorious BIG, was for decades a huge figure in pop culture – a Grammy-winning hip-hop artist and business entrepreneur, who presided over an empire ranging from fashion to reality TV.
As well as the criminal conviction, he is also facing several civil lawsuits.
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