UNITED STATES NEWS

In ‘No Hard Feelings,’ a comedy made for Jennifer Lawrence

May 4, 2023, 12:41 PM

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jennifer Lawrence has wanted to do a big comedy for years. She has always been funny and vibrant in her television appearances. And while she has brought humor and physical comedy to many of her roles for David O. Russell and others, she also hasn’t exactly gotten the big, broad “Dumb and Dumber” or “Anchorman” experience, to cite some of her favorites (or at least the ones she’s memorized).

That changes this No Hard Feelings ” (in theaters June 23), a classic, raunchy R-rated comedy that was tailor made for her.

“I’ve always wanted to do a comedy. And I’ve read a lot of them,” Lawrence told The Associated Press last week in Las Vegas. “I just didn’t read anything that was funny enough.”

“No Hard Feelings” was inspired by a real Craigslist ad posted by parents who were seeking a woman to “date” their son to bring him out of his shell the summer before he went to college. There are debates over just how real the “real ad” was, but thinking about the woman who might answer an ad like that was a premise funny enough to catch the attention of several producers and writer-director Gene Stupnitsky.

Stupnitsky, an Emmy-nominated alum of “The Office” who also directed and co-wrote the 2019 hit “Good Boys,” knew just who to take it to. He told Lawrence about the idea one night at dinner with friends in which, he estimated, they had had about “eight or nine martinis between us.”

The two met over a decade ago, through a mutual friend, at Medieval Times of all places. Lawrence, he remembered, was dressed in a full Wizard costume. And they soon became actual friends. He even introduced Lawrence to her husband.

“I owed him one,” Lawrence said. “That’s why I did this film.”

Stupnitsky, sitting next to Lawrence, added: “There’s probably some truth to that.”

With Lawrence attached to star and produce, the movie became a hot commodity, with streaming services and studios vying for the rights to make it. Ultimately, they went with Sony and a traditional theatrical release.

“The reason I wrote this movie for her is because I knew how funny she was and I wanted everyone else to know. I mean, people know she’s funny but they wanted her in a comedy. I thought, yes I know how to do this. I know how to write her voice,” Stupnitsky said. “I remember I told her, ‘I really want you to experience a feeling of sitting in a theater with hundreds of people laughing.’ She’s had many, many experiences in film, but she hasn’t quite had this one.”

In “No Hard Feelings,” Lawrence’s character Maddie is having a rough stretch with money. As an Uber driver without a car she’s in a pressing bind. So when she finds this ad with the promise of a Buick Regal as payment, she takes the bait. In a clip that Sony debuted for theater owners at the CinemaCon convention last week, Maddie meets 19-year-old Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) for the first time wearing a slim, hot pink mini dress and high heels and acting overtly flirty and available.

“She’s dressed like what she thinks is a 19-year-old’s idea of a sex fantasy. And she’s wrong,” Stupnitsky said. “He’s like the one kid who she can’t seduce.”

The situation escalates from there as she tries to give him a ride home. He thinks he’s being abducted and, as anyone who has watched the red-band trailer knows, it ends with her getting pepper sprayed. But there’s a sweet core to the film too.

“He is longing for a connection, which is what she needs as well but doesn’t know it yet,” Stupnitsky said. “She wants to get the car and move on with her life. But he’s forcing her to kind of take things slow and get to know him and be intimate, in a way, with him in a platonic sort of way.”

The experience, Lawrence said, was a blast, helped by her connection with her younger co-star.

“We just laughed all day long,” she said. “Sometimes I would get in bed after work and just like, giggle before going to sleep, just thinking about the day. I was also sad for making it because I was like, ‘God, I’m just I’m not going to have one of these again. This is this is so singular.’”

As a producer on the film, Lawrence has already gotten to watch it with an audience and experience that big, communal laughter that Stupnitsky promised.

“I went to a test screening and sat in back,” she said. “It was pretty extraordinary.”

Every film, she knows, is a gamble but she’s pretty confident about “No Hard Feelings.”

“You really never know. You might think audiences want this and they don’t. And I’ve certainly had my experiences with that,” she said. “It’s a mix of instinct and looking at the information that you have. I knew what we had was the funniest movie that anybody would have ever seen — I have no doubts about that—and I knew that Gene was the one that could do it.”

It’s also Lawrence’s first major theatrical release in a few years, since the 2019 X-Men movie “Dark Phoenix.” Her recent films have been primarily streaming releases with Netflix’s Apple’s “Causeway,” which she also produced.

“I think audiences are really going to remember why they love her,”Stupnitsky said.

Lawrence laughed: “I look much better 12 feet high.”

United States News

FILE - Facebook's Meta logo sign is seen at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on, Oct...

Associated Press

Thousands of fake Facebook accounts shut down by Meta were primed to polarize voters ahead of 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — Someone in China created thousands of fake social media accounts designed to appear to be from Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year’s elections, Meta said Thursday. The network of nearly 4,800 fake accounts was attempting to build […]

9 minutes ago

FILE - Lead water pipes pulled from underneath the street are seen in Newark, N.J., Oct. 21, 2021. ...

Associated Press

Biden administration proposes biggest changes to lead pipe rules in more than three decades

Most U.S. cities would have to replace lead water pipes within 10 years under strict new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency as the Biden administration moves to reduce lead in drinking water and prevent public health crises like the ones in Flint, Michigan and Washington, D.C. Millions of people consume drinking water from […]

2 hours ago

China’s President Hu Jintao, shakes meets with singer-songwriter, Barbra Streisand, left, and...

Associated Press

Henry Kissinger, secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, dies at 100

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, his consulting firm said. He was 100. With his gruff yet commanding presence and behind-the-scenes manipulation of […]

11 hours ago

File - A truck passes oil pump jacks at dusk near Karnes City, Texas, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. On W...

Associated Press

US economic growth for last quarter is revised up to a 5.2% annual rate

Shrugging off higher interest rates, America's consumers spent enough to help drive the economy to a brisk 5.2% annual pace from July through September.

11 hours ago

Associated Press

A US Navy plane went into a Hawaii bay. Underwater video shows its tires are touching a coral reef

KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii (AP) — Tires from a large airplane that’s been stuck in a Hawaii bay for more than a week are resting on parts of a reef, according to video the U.S. Navy released Wednesday as it figures out a plan to remove the aircraft. There were no injuries to the nine people […]

12 hours ago

FILE - Utah Food Bank volunteers load groceries for the needy at a mobile food pantry distribution ...

Associated Press

Total GivingTuesday donations were flat this year, but 10% fewer people participated in the day

NEW YORK (AP) — Nonprofit organization GivingTuesday estimates that donors gave $3.1 billion this year on what has become one of the most important fundraising days of the year — the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Donations were up $20 million on Tuesday, a 0.6% increase over last year before adjusting for inflation, the nonprofit said. GivingTuesday […]

12 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

Follow @KTAR923...

The best ways to honor our heroes on Veterans Day and give back to the community

Veterans Day is fast approaching and there's no better way to support our veterans than to donate to the Military Assistance Mission.

...

Dierdre Woodruff

Interest rates may have peaked. Should you buy a CD, high-yield savings account, or a fixed annuity?

Interest rates are the highest they’ve been in decades, and it looks like the Fed has paused hikes. This may be the best time to lock in rates for long-term, low-risk financial products like fixed annuities.

...

Midwestern University

Midwestern University: innovating Arizona health care education

Midwestern University’s Glendale Campus near Loop 101 and 59th Avenue is an established leader in health care education and one of Arizona’s largest and most valuable health care resources.

In ‘No Hard Feelings,’ a comedy made for Jennifer Lawrence