As one of Hollywood’s most bankable actresses, Jennifer Lawrence is well aware of how many people show up to see her big-screen performances, and it’s likely not a number that would bring comfort to anyone who gets nervous about being watched by others. Especially when it comes to nudity. But while the average person might balk at baring it all for widespread audiences, the Hunger Games franchise vet doesn’t think it’s that much of a big deal.
Having previously gone nude for body-painting purposes in X-Men: First Class as Mystique, as well as bypassing body-double usage for No Hard Feelings’ nude scenes, JLaw is fairly seasoned when it comes to acting in her birthday suit, seemingly more so when it comes to scenes that don’t even involve sex. In an interview with The New York Times about her upcoming movie opposite Robert Pattinson, the dark relationship dramedy Die My Love, Lawrence was asked about the film’s use of “unvarnished nudity,” and what her take is on the country’s polarized feelings about getting naked for audiences. As she put it:
I’m definitely not bothered by people that are bothered by nudity. They don’t have to see it, they can fast-forward. But I don’t really care about being judged in that way. There was this freedom of vanity because I’m pregnant and it’s my second. I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just be four or five months. I won’t even start showing until I’m like six or seven months.’ And that’s not true when it’s your second.
That’s right. On top of taking on the complicated and troubling role of Die My Love‘s Grace, Jennifer Lawrence was pregnant with her second child at the time, which would seemingly cause her even more hesitation about having her full body on display. But that’s just not how the actress’ brain works, and it was just a matter of not feeling self-conscious at all. It’s an inspirational take if one chooses to see it that way.
In any case, her view is perfectly logical, in that anyone who gets uncomfortable by seeing actors’ bodies can always fast-forward through nudity to get to the next fully clothed sequence. (Not so much for theatrical screenings, but that’s what bathroom breaks are good for.)
Lawrence said that because of the pregnancy, she wasn’t really able to do anything that she would have if she was planning nude scenes for a different movie. As she explained:
I just had to let go of any kind of vanity. I sucked in as hard as I possibly could, but I wasn’t going to diet. I was pregnant. I couldn’t exercise. I was working. So there’s just this real freedom to it.
I think that’s definitely the ideal way to live: accepting that one’s situation can’t be changed, and leaning into it anyway instead of stepping back in shame or some other esteem-lacking behavior. We’ve only got the one body, so it’s better to go all out than to hold back and regret it later.
JLaw previously addressed her nude dancing in Die My Lovewith Robert Pattinson, but it remains to be seen just how salacious that and other scenes will be. I mean, she also talked previously about jumping right into a sex scene on the first day of filming. Lawrence also appeared to be walking around nude in the film’s first trailer, and it seems like there’s more than enough privacy out in the woods for the couple to just walk around nude all the time without prying eyes involved.
As someone who can impress in a dress just as much as when she’s not in one, Jennifer Lawrence is totally a national treasure, and I cannot wait to see her and Pattinson’s increasingly strained relationship when Die My Love hits theaters on November 7.
