In the three years since her Oscar-nominated breakthrough in the indie flick Winter’s Bone, it might feel like we’re already familiar with Jennifer Lawrence. After all, she’s become a box office staple, embodying a teenage Mystique in X-Men: First Class and Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games.
But unlike other Hollywood starlets, it feels as if we really know her—like hot best friend level—because this 22-year-old Kentucky native happens to be most entertaining when she’s out of character. Whether it’s a candid interview or her stumble at last month’s Academy Awards accepting her Best Actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook, we’re most obsessed with Lawrence when she’s herself.
Even then, there’s so much more to know about J-Law that the gossip blogs and Tumblr haven't told you already. With that, we present 30 Things You Didn’t Know About Jennifer Lawrence.
Her big break was the 2006 Monk episode, "Mr. Monk and the Big Game" playing a lion mascot.
In 7th grade, she was voted "Most Talkative."
She was a high school cheerleader.
She really butchered that squirrel in Winter's Bone. Sorry, PETA.
She went to a strip club once where a very aggressive, elderly Little Bo Peep gave her a lap dance.
When she was 14, she was discovered by a model scout while visiting New York with her mom for spring break.
To prepare for her role in Winter's Bone, Lawrence's cousin cleaned out a shotgun for her to carry around the house because, according to him, "Anybody who knows anything about guns is going to know in a second if someone has held a gun before."
She had auditioned for Kristen Stewart's part of Bella Swan in the Twilight saga, Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which went to Rooney Mara, and Emma Stone's part in Superbad.
She is featured in the music video for the song "The Mess I Made," from the album Losing Sleep by Parachute.
Her nickname on the set of The Hunger Games was "Katpiss Neverclean."
When she was a kid, she lied about having to get her leg amputated. She got in trouble when her mom found out.
Her family owned a horse farm when she was growing up, and her first horse was a pony named Muffin.
When she was nine, she played a prostitute from Nineveh in a church play centered on the Book of Jonah.
She played field hockey, softball and basketball on a boys' team coached by her dad.
Her favorite movies are The Big Lebowski, Harold and Maude and Midnight in Paris.
In preschool, she wasn't allowed to play with the other girls because she was too rough.
She was the first girl born on her dad's side of the family in 50 years.
She graduated from high school, with a 3.9 GPA, two years early in order to begin acting.
On the set of Silver Linings Playbook, she and director David O. Russell would make videos pretending to wipe their butts with coffee napkins until Bradley Cooper made them focus again.
Her 2010 photo shoot with Esquire was a deliberate attempt to show she can be sexy and feminine after her country bumpkin role in Winter's Bone. She says it helped her get the role of Mystique in X-Men: First Class.
Before she pursued acting, she wanted to be a doctor.
She took three days to consider taking the role of Katniss in The Hunger Games series because she knew her life would change.
Her first sentence to Woody Harelson, while meeting in his trailer, was, "Hi, Woody, I'm J– is that a sex swing?" It was a yoga swing.
She once stalked John Stamos at a party.
Growing up, her nickname was "Nitro" because she was so hyper.
When her dad started working at home, she would perform for him by dressing up as a clown or a ballerina, among other characters. She'd reappear as a new person every time.
She earned her SAG card after appearing in a commercial for MTV's My Super Sweet 16 as a spoiled rich girl.
She has a cat named Cleo who she calls Chaz Bono.
Her first leading role was as Bill Engvall's daughter on his TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show from 2007 to 2009.
This is a photo of her and her family reacting to the news of her first Oscar nomination.
