Look back at ten of the best Jennifer Lawrence movies and TV shows before The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 hits theaters next month!
In just nine years as a professional actress, Jennifer Lawrence is undeniably one of the top performers in Hollywood and a major box office draw. And since 2010, Lawrence has gone from a relative unknown to a three-time Oscar nominee, including her Best Actress win in 2013 for Silver Linings Playbook. It’s hard to look at a list of Jennifer Lawrence movies and keep in mind that she’s only 25 years old!
Among genre fans, the top films of the Jennifer Lawrence movies include her starring roles in the X-Men films and The Hunger Games series. Lawrence’s turn as Mystique in X-Men: First Class signaled bigger things for her career, but it was her part as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games that transformed the perception of Lawrence as an actress. Her performance helped make The Hunger Games into one of the most successful YA film franchises.
On November 20, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 will bring the saga to its conclusion as Lawrence steps back into the role of Katniss one last time. But before Mockingjay – Part 2 marks the end of an era for Lawrence, ComingSoon.net is taking a retrospective look at ten of the best Jennifer Lawrence movies and TV shows.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: The Bill Engvall Show (2007)
Lawrence began her career with guest turns on “Monk,” “Cold Case,” and “Medium,” but it was her starring role on The Bill Engvall Show that served as her big break. She played Lauren Pearson, the oldest daughter of Engvall’s Bill Pearson and his onscreen wife, Susan (Nancy Travis).
Because “The Bill Engvall Show” was a TBS original sitcom, its audience was fairly limited. But in 30 episodes over three seasons, Lawrence established her comedic chops on the series.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: Winter’s Bone (2010)
One year after “The Bill Engvall Show” came to an end, Lawrence scored her first breakout role in the independent film, Winter’s Bone. She played Ree Dolly, a young girl who is forced to provide for her mentally ill mother and younger siblings before embarking on a quest to find her missing father to save the family home.
Winter’s Bone was a modest hit, but it was a critical darling and propelled Lawrence to her first nomination for Best Actress at the Oscars. She didn’t win in her first try, but she did become one of the youngest Oscar nominees in that category.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: The Beaver (2011)
Lawrence filmed her part for The Beaver in 2009, but the movie was delayed for various reasons before its eventual release. Her role in this film is actually rather small. She plays Nora, the love interest of Porter (Anton Yelchin), a teenager whose father (as played by Mel Gibson) begins communicating with his family solely through the Beaver puppet on his arm.
While Lawrence’s character was not in the spotlight, Nora does get an important moment late in the film that serves as the catalyst to bring Porter and his family back together.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: X-Men: First Class (2011)
Lawrence’s next major role came in X-Men: First Class, a prequel and semi-reboot to the original X-Men trilogy. Lawrence was cast as Raven Darkhölme a.k.a. Mystique, and she had to undergo extensive makeup and body painting for the part. This film also retconned in a sibling-like relationship between Mystique and the young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), and that was something that didn’t previously exist between the characters.
X-Men: First Class was also Lawrence’s first action film, which served her well for next performance.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: The Hunger Games (2012)
In 2011, Lawrence emerged as the winner of a worldwide casting search to play Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins’ dystopian YA Hunger Games novels were already top-sellers before the movie came out. But The Hunger Games firmly established Lawrence as a box office draw and it quickly became a hit.
Within the film, Katniss inadvertently became an inspiration for rebellion against the tyrannical reign of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) when she volunteered for The Hunger Games and when she refused to kill Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), the other remaining survivor. Lawrence went on to reprise her role in the three Hunger Games sequels, including the upcoming Mockingjay – Part 2.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: House at the End of the Street (2012)
When you’re a young actress in Hollywood, your resume is never quite complete without a horror movie to your credit. For Lawrence, that movie is House at the End of the Street. In this film, she played Elissa, a teenager living with her divorced mother (as played by Elisabeth Shue) who forms a tentative relationship with Ryan (Max Thieriot), the sole survivor of a massacre committed by his sister.
Needless to say, things weren’t necessarily as they seemed. But Lawrence proved once again that she could carry a movie.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
It’s one thing to be a box office star and another to be an award winning actress. But Lawrence achieved both in Silver Linings Playbook, her first collaboration with director David O. Russell and actor Bradley Cooper.
Lawrence portrayed Tiffany Maxwell, a young widow who finds herself drawn to Cooper’s Pat Solitano. Both Tiffany and Pat also share certain neuroses while partnering up to win a dance competition. This was also the movie that earned Lawrence her first Oscar for Best Actress.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: American Hustle (2013)
The next year, Lawrence reunited with Russell and Cooper in American Hustle. This time, Lawrence played Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), the unstable wife of Christian Bale’s Irving Rosenfeld.
Amy Adams was the leading actress of American Hustle, but Lawrence still landed her third Oscar nomination, this time in the supporting actress category. Lawrence was also prominently featured in the PR campaign for American Hustle.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Lawrence’s second time in the X-Men film universe gave Mystique a much larger role, as Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) was mentally sent back in time to help prevent Mystique’s ill-fated assassination attempt of Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), the creator of the Sentinels.
The emotional climax of X-Men: Days of Future Past hinges upon an important choice by Mystique. And while her fate is unknown in the newly-reconfigured X-Men timeline, Lawrence will be back at least one more time in the role for X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016.
Jennifer Lawrence Movies and TV Spotlight: Joy (2015)
Lawrence’s next film, Joy, is her third collaboration with director David O. Russell and her fourth film with Bradley Cooper. This time, Lawrence is in the title role of Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop.
Joy is Lawrence’s big drama movie of 2015, and if she gets another Oscar nomination next year it will likely be for her role in this movie. Joy will also be Lawrence’s first movie after The Hunger Games franchise comes to an end.
