CLOSE Jennifer Lawrence talks about her role in her new movie 'Red Sparrow.' USA TODAY
After training for four months to play a Bolshoi prima ballerina, "I was accomplished enough to match a ballerina’s body, which led to me screaming that I needed a block of cheese," says "Red Sparrow" star Jennifer Lawrence. (Photo: Dan MacMedan/USA TODAY)
BEVERLY HILLS – Jennifer Lawrence will absolutely crush you in an Instagram animal-off.
“I already have you beat because I have a (expletive) deer licking a kitten and I have a (expletive) wallaby eating some chips,” says Lawrence, 27, grabbing her phone at a corner table at the Beverly Hills Hotel after a mention is made of being attached to a certain baby hippo named Fiona.
There are zero cuddly moments in Red Sparrow, Lawrence's new psychological thriller (in theaters Friday), in which she plays Dominka Egorova, a Bolshoi ballerina-turned-spy who is trained to seduce and ensnare her targets. The film is based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Jason Matthews, a former CIA agent who wrote of a real Russian program called Sparrow School.
The film marks a major shift for Lawrence, who has spent years taking on emotionally dense, mature roles — think American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook, the latter of which won her an Oscar — while steadfastly avoiding jobs that rely on sexuality and nudity.
The closest she'd come, she says, is during a moment from her last movie, mother!, in which her sweater is ripped by rabid fans who descend upon her home with Javier Bardem, representing the destruction of Mother Earth.
“(Director) Darren (Aronofsky) showed me the footage,” which revealed her bra underneath. “I’m like, ‘Well, that’s not violating enough,' so I took my bra off. So that was kind of a moment for me, I was like, 'My boob’s out! My boob’s out, I’m on set!' But up until that point I had never really done anything that sexual.”
Francis Lawrence, who directed three of the dystopian films that launched Lawrence to international stardom, says he began to broach the idea of Red Sparrow during their last Hunger Games promotional tour in 2015.
"I remembered conversations we had when she was 21 or 22 making Hunger Games, when she said she wasn’t really interested in making movies with nudity or any sort of overt sexuality," he says. "So as I was developing it and it was obviously clearly going to be a big part of this, I was very nervous that she wasn’t going to want to do it."
They talked openly about it, and when the script was ready, so was Lawrence.
"Obviously, it’s very sexy, and I wasn’t quite sure yet where my head was on that, so I just wanted to talk about it (with Francis Lawrence)," she says. "We both knew I was going to have to decide to do the scenes as they’re written or another actress should do the role. And here I am. I’m still alive."
"As much as people think if you’re a celebrity or famous person then you must have, over the years, developed thick skin … she’s still a person," says co-star Joel Edgerton. (Photo: Murray Close, 20th Century Fox)
The director showed his star the final cut of Red Sparrow before anyone, including producers and the studio, "so she had the right to yank anything out that she didn’t want to (show). ... She never did it, but I gave her that option.”
Red Sparrow arrives in the middle of an intensifying Me Too movement, with conversations growing nationwide about consent. “It used to be normal if a man who was in a position of power (over) me, an executive, could put his hand on my leg. And now I feel like they won’t be doing that to young people,” Lawrence says.
Jennifer Lawrence shares abuse story: I had to lose 15 pounds, pose nude
She still has no idea why disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein, who produced Silver Linings, left her alone.
“You look at these women whose careers have been absolutely dismantled by Harvey Weinstein, because he picked them as they were coming up, before they were huge. And then he would spread rumors through the studios that they were crazy, and they wouldn’t get hired and their careers were being ruined and they had no idea why. I don’t know why them and not me. I don’t have, like, a predatory mind, so I don’t know what those (kind of men) are looking for.”
CLOSE Dominika Egorova, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is left with an uncertain future after her dancing career suddenly ends. Then she finds herself in a world of violence when she becomes a dangerous spy. USA TODAY
Weinstein aside, Lawrence has started drawing more careful lines around her personal life. She’s no longer taking selfies with fans. (Two just asked her in the hotel bathroom.) She’s grateful to them, she says, but it became too much.
Even today, Lawrence flinches when a fellow diner pulls out a phone. “Sorry, I just see cellphones and I just (jump)," she says, casting a wary eye at the surrounding tables.
More: Harvey Weinstein sorry he used Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence in his defense
Recently, "because I’m single, somebody was talking about setting me up with someone. And she’s like, 'You need to be with somebody who’s, like, in tech.' " Lawrence raises an eyebrow. "Just while we’ve been sitting at this dinner, how many people have come up to me? Like five, six?"
She's clearly thinking: How would someone outside this life handle that? Lawrence sips her tea. "I just had to carve out a life that was better for me, with less anxiety."
But trusting is tricky. The night before, Lawrence was at Ellen DeGeneres’ birthday party, cutting loose in a room of fellow A-listers. Unbeknownst to her, candid photos of Lawrence inside the bash appeared in a tabloid the next day.
Related: Jennifer Lawrence slams 'ridiculous' controversy around her Versace dress
Recently, Joel Edgerton, who plays the FBI agent seduced by Dominika, watched with annoyance when Lawrence was forced to explain she chose not to wear a coat over her Versace dress during a brief photo shoot with the cast last week in London.
“Does everything she says or does have to be turned into some kind of controversy?” he asks. "I think it would be a shame if Jen started to build a wall or put filters up. That’s just one part of her nature and her spirit that I think everybody loves. Now, it’s sort of mutated at times into the thing that people like to criticize, and I think they should all just shut up.”
Jennifer Lawrence (with Joel Edgerton) called controversy that sprang up because she didn't wear a coat over this Versace dress in London "utterly ridiculous." (Photo: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)
Part of what's grounding Lawrence right now, she says, is political action. She was “losing her mind” during the last presidential election. President Trump, she says, reminds her of men she encountered Hollywood. “I was just kind of flailing because I just know that guy. I’ve seen that guy a million times. … I’ve met the dude that’s going to point at you and be like, 'I’m going to make you rich.' And he’s lying."
Now, instead of making another movie in 2018, the actress is spending the rest of the year traveling the country trying to get young people engaged with the non-partisan anti-political corruption group Represent.Us.
“What I’m trying to do and (the group's) entire mission is bringing both sides of the aisle together on things we agree on," she says. "We agree that corruption should not be legal in America. I think we agree on gerrymandering, I hope. It’s not a partisan thing."
Pretty normal, right?
And then she gets a text from Jennifer Aniston. “Look how normal I am," she grins.
CLOSE Jennifer Lawerence's new movie 'Red Sparrow' depicts a strong woman. She explains how that role impacts the Me Too movement. USA TODAY
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“Do you know how long it takes to peel the skin from a human body?” a torture-happy Russian goon asks in “Red Sparrow.” I imagine it feels about as long as sitting through this atrocious spy thriller, in which Jennifer Lawrence plays a prima ballerina who goes to whore school.
I’m not kidding. The film’s unquestionable high point is Lawrence’s character bellowing the accusing line in her Boris-and-Natasha accent: “You sent me to whore school!”
Other than this “Showgirls”-esque howler and Mary-Louise Parker’s amusing turn as a drunk, corrupt American senator’s aide, there’s little to recommend “Red Sparrow” — a throwback to old Hollywood in its belief that gratuitous rape and violence are the best way to create a heroine with backbone.
That’s almost beside the point, though: Director Francis Lawrence (“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”) makes a hash of the already convoluted plot (based on a novel by Jason Matthews) and wastes a lead who’s capable of being this year’s “Atomic Blonde” (she even gets a platinum dye job halfway through).
But where Charlize Theron’s double-agent character dispatched assailants with brutal physical precision, Lawrence’s is mostly required to be eye candy, despite her past as a lead in the Bolshoi Ballet. You’d think all that training might come in handy, but director Lawrence (no relation) never lets her use her dancer’s legs to strangle even one bad guy. What gives?
We meet Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) as she’s headlining the ballet and caring for her ailing mama (Joely Richardson), but her career is scuttled when a careless male dancer breaks her leg.
Strapped for cash, the resourceful Dominika agrees to spy for her politician uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts) and soon finds herself shipped off to Sparrow School, where the state trains nubile men and women in espionage via seduction. And lock picking. But mostly seduction.
When Dominika fends off a near-rape by one of her classmates, she’s punished for it by having to strip naked and re-enact the scene in front of a class. (Somewhere, there’s a porn director planning a “Red Sparrow” satire in which these pervy impulses can be liberated from an R rating.)
A prestigious cast keep straight faces here, including Jeremy Irons and Ciarán Hinds as Russian officials and Charlotte Rampling as the severe matron (“You vill call me Matron”) of the Sparrows. Joel Edgerton plays a CIA operative with the most American of names: Nate Nash, cultivator of a Russian mole, who thinks he can flip Dominika. She plays along while reporting back to her bosses, and off we go.
There will be double-crossing. There will be a hilariously bad sex scene. And there will be (gag) flaying.
A decent eleventh-hour twist isn’t enough to redeem what’s come before, which the film would have you see as a righteous indictment of Russia’s corruption and misogyny. Too bad it resembles countless bad sexploitation flicks set right here at home.
Jennifer Lawrence was rocked when nude photos of her were leaked during a 2014 phone hack.
And in the March issue of Vanity Fair, the 27-year-old actress explained how going nude for her new film Red Sparrow helped heal her.
The blonde beauty from Kentucky said because it was her choice and not someone else's, she felt 'empowered.'
Challenge accepted: Jennifer Lawrence was rocked when nude photos of her were leaked during a 2014 phone hack. And in f Vanity Fair, the actress explained how going nude for her new film Red Sparrow helped heal her
The cover of the March Vanity Fair
Jennifer was told when signing on for the film that there would be nudity.
And instead of putting her off, she said it made her want to do the movie.
But the Oscar winner worried what would be said of her.
'My biggest fear was that people would say, "Oh, how can you complain about the hack if you're going to get nude anyway?"' she said.
'One is my choice. I got something back that was taken from me, and it also felt normal,' said the Silver Linings Playbook actress.
Jennifer stars as Dominika Egorova, a Russian prima ballerina who is coerced into becoming a covert intelligence agent by her uncle in the film.
Hot stuff: Jennifer stars as Dominika Egorova, a Russian prima ballerina who is coerced into becoming a covert intelligence agent by her uncle in the film
Trained in the arts of seduction and sexual manipulation, Egorova is sent on a mission to extract secrets from an American CIA agent (Joel Edgerton).
Also in her interview with Krista Smith, she said she had to diet for the role. 'Red Sparrow was the first time that I was really hungry, and disciplined.
'I can’t be in character as an ex-ballerina and not feel like an ex-ballerina,' the actress explained.
More pressure: The 27-year-old also had to diet for the movie, which opens this weekend
A new mission: She struggles with her new mission; seen here in a brown dress
Needs a burger: 'Red Sparrow was the first time that I was really hungry, and disciplined. I can’t be in character as an ex-ballerina and not feel like an ex-ballerina,' the actress explained
Lawrence trained with a ballet coach for three months and the ballerina scenes were the first to be shot by director Francis Lawrence, who helmed three of her Hunger Games movies.
Once those were done, and the action moved on as the now former ballerina is recruited as a spy, the cover girl also ditched her strict food regimen.
'I can’t work on a diet,' Lawrence told Vanity Fair.
'I’m hungry. I’m standing on my feet. I need more energy,' she said. 'I remember having a meltdown, freaking out that I had eaten five banana chips.'
Therapy: Lawrence also details in the article a very scary moment when the private plane she was traveling on from Kentucky to New York suffered double engine failure at 31,000 feet. The plane ended up landing safely and no-one was hurt. But, she says, she had to get therapy
Parts of the film were shot in Budapest, Hungary, and the actress turned to a local fast food favorite.
'I discovered this Viennese kielbasa sausage in an uncircumcised French-bread roll, with pickle relish,' she revealed. 'I had that almost every day in Budapest, which you can see, because I continue to grow in the movie. Dieting is just not in the cards for me.'
Lawrence also details in the article a very scary moment when the private plane she was traveling on from Kentucky to New York suffered double engine failure at 31,000 feet.
Stunner: The Kentucky native looked incredible in London last week at a photo call
The plane ended up landing safely and no-one was hurt. But, she says, she had to get therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the terrifying experience she went through.
Her go-to aide for future plane rides - watching Emma Watson in the film Beauty And The Beast, she said.
'Thank you, Emma Watson, for Beauty and the Beast. I've seen it six or seven times. If anybody has any questions about it, come to me,' she said.
A bondage look: On Tuesday she wore this cage dress for the NYC premiere of the film
And she talked Trump too.
'Twenty-five percent of America identifies as liberal and I need more than 25 percent of America to go see my movies,' said the star.
'It's not wise, career-speaking, to talk about politics. My family obviously hates every time I talk about politics because it's hard to see your kid get criticized and they live in Kentucky, where nobody is really liking what I'm saying.'
She also said Democrats made a 'huge mistake' by taking aim at Trump supporters. 'That was disgusting to me. You laughed at them when their plight is very real,' she said.
Share. Jennifer Lawrence stars in a spy film that's so disturbingly brutal it's hard to watch. Jennifer Lawrence stars in a spy film that's so disturbingly brutal it's hard to watch.
Spy movies don’t get a lot seedier than Red Sparrow. The new thriller stars Jennifer Lawrence as a Russian woman coerced into joining a secret government program designed to train women and men to exploit the sexual desires of the enemy, by any means necessary, no matter how repugnant they may be.
It’s a grotesque concept but it might have at least been interesting if the filmmakers had anything interesting to say about it. Instead, director Francis Lawrence’s film tries to operate as a slick, sensual spy blockbuster while also constantly acknowledging just how messed up every single thing about it really is. It’s hard to take the film’s critique of dehumanization seriously when it takes every opportunity possible to luxuriate in its prurience, and it’s impossible to enjoy the film as a superficial thrill ride when every single scene is built on a foundation of horrific abuse.
Exit Theatre Mode
Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova, a promising ballerina who suffers a debilitating leg injury, and now has to find another way to take care of her ailing mother. Unfortunately, she has an uncle named, in a rare moment of Red Sparrow levity, Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts), who works for the Russian government and has a job that needs to be done. Vanya tells Dominika to seduce one of her high-profile fans but, when her mark gets her alone, he brutalizes Dominika and then gets violently murdered, in one of the many scenes in Red Sparrow that is legitimately hard to watch.
Dominika, now a witness to a political assassination, is given two options: death, or, since she is adept at seduction, a job. Picking the latter, she gets sent to a training facility where young women and men are taught to shut down their own humanity, give their bodies to the state, and learn to have sex with anybody, in any situation. It is a long and painful process of breaking down one’s free will, filled with many scenes of sexual violence, and by the time she leaves, Dominika is very much changed.
Finally, Dominika is given her assignment: to seduce an American spy named Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), and get him to reveal the name of a mole within the Russian government. But Dominika has other plans, and a twisting-turning game of twisty-turny twists commences.
And by this point it’s extremely hard to care about plot points like phony bank accounts, stolen computer files and double-agents. Red Sparrow spends so much time highlighting the sexism and violence at the core of its story that it’s hard to believe it actually expects us to be entertained by anything else that happens.
Red Sparrow Images 6 IMAGES Fullscreen Image Artboard 3 Copy Artboard 3 ESC 01 6 Jennifer Lawrence as the Russian seductress Dominika Egorova and Joel Edgerton as CIA agent Nathaniel Nash in the spy thriller Red Sparrow, directed by Francis Lawrence and opening March 2, 2018. 01 6 Jennifer Lawrence as the Russian seductress Dominika Egorova and Joel Edgerton as CIA agent Nathaniel Nash in the spy thriller Red Sparrow, directed by Francis Lawrence and opening March 2, 2018. Red Sparrow Images Download Image Captions ESC
It’s hard to find a movie appealing when every thing about it except the cinematography and production design is ugly and brutal. And by that point you might even start resenting the beautiful imagery for failing to read the room, and veering so far away from what should - by all rights - be the point.
Jennifer Lawrence is a supremely talented performer, and the same could be said for most of the cast, but they seem trapped by this disturbing material. Lawrence, in particular, is victimized throughout the entirety of Red Sparrow, making it difficult to appreciate just how much effort she puts into creating a nuanced character between those overpoweringly uncomfortable moments.
The film spends more time looking at Lawrence than giving us insight into her state of mind, treating her so much like an object of fascination that you start to wonder whether the filmmakers have any idea what the point of their own story is.
