Arts blog: ‘When Jennifer Lawrence stops falling over a moment will have passed’

By ANDREW EATON-LEWIS
Published on 28/02/2013 18:38

ANDREW Eaton-Lewis salutes the real star of Oscar night.

If there’s one thing I took from this year’s Oscars, it’s this: actors should drink more before they go on stage. Compare Jennifer Lawrence’s pre-ceremony red carpet interview – stiff, scripted, by-the-book gushing about her director and co-stars, yawn – with the press conference she gave afterwards, during which she confessed she’d “just had a shot” and was goofy, cheeky and off-the-cuff, quipping that she fell on the way up to the stage because they “wax the stairs”, poking fun at a pretentious question about the “process” behind, of all things, getting dressed up for the event (“What was the process? I don’t know, I woke up, I tried on the dress, I took a shower.”) and – in the most charming way possible – pointing up the absurdity of asking whether it’s a “good thing” that she’s become so successful by the age of 22.

Journalist: “Are you not worried about peaking too soon?”

Lawrence (to hoots of laughter from assembled hacks): “Well now I am. God.”

It’s possible that the sheer adorableness of Lawrence when tipsy doesn’t come across quite so well in print. If not, seek out the YouTube clip of her first ever meeting with Jack Nicholson, post-Oscars and, very possibly, post-a few more shots – she is unguarded, properly starstruck, yet, within seconds, self-assured and completely in control of the situation (“Is he still there? I need a rear-view mirror.”). Jennifer Lawrence slightly tipsy at the Oscars may be one of those rare and precious Hollywood moments. She is, perhaps, just young enough for her guard still to be down. Compare her Oscar interviews on Sunday with those of Anne Hathaway – fixed professional smile, guard firmly up, keenly aware of how, as a Hollywood actress, every word she says will probably be twisted and used against her. Lawrence, by contrast, just seemed to blunder in, hoping for the best. As it happened, she fell over on the way to the stage. Embarrassing? No, it’s won her many, many new fans. When she stops falling over – when, as tends to happen with very famous people, her public appearances are stage managed to the point where such slips, verbal or physical, become virtually impossible – a moment will have passed.