Despite being one of the most celebrated actresses of the last decade, Jennifer Lawrence had to wait a while before finding her footing in Hollywood as she experienced several bumps in her way. But before she eventually rose to the spotlight through Winter’s Bone and found herself leading The Hunger Games, her initial days in Hollywood weren’t easy as she had to face rejection from a major IP.
This involved Robert Pattinson’s Twilight, which was released back in 2008 and spawned an entire franchise that despite its low critical reception, went on to make more than $3B at the box office.
Jennifer Lawrence was immediately rejected from Twilight
Unlike the present, where Jennifer Lawrence has cemented herself as one of the most skillful performers of our time, the Oscar winner’s audition for Twilight back in 2008 didn’t go well. Reflecting on the subject, The Hunger Games star recounted her audition experience for the role of Bella, which later went to Kristen Stewart, and according to Lawrence, she didn’t even receive a callback and was rejected immediately after she auditioned. She recalled,
“I auditioned for Twilight [and] they turned me down immediately. [Laughs] I didn’t even get a callback. But my life would’ve been totally different. I got Hunger Games I think, like, a year later. When you audition when you’re a run-of-the-mill actor… you just get five pages and they’re like, ‘Act monkey.’ When it came out, I was like, ‘Hot damn.’”
Following the film’s release, the Mother star was flabbergasted after witnessing the huge phenomenon that the Twilight movies would become in the early 2010s. But fans believe that the rejection was a blessing in disguise for the actress and she dodged a bullet.
Fans claim it was a blessing in disguise for Jennifer Lawrence
Losing Twilight didn’t hurt Jennifer Lawrence for long as after that, the actress wound found herself in several critically acclaimed films and would lead The Hunger Games franchise. Even though Twilight did become a huge talk of the town upon its release, the franchise as a whole never managed to win on critics. Reflecting on the situation, fans believe that losing the role of Bella was the best outcome for the Silver Linings Playbook actress.
Although the rejection from Twilight postponed her climb to the top at the time, looking in hindsight, it did pave the way for Lawrence to move on to bigger and better things moving forward.
Twilight is available to stream on Hulu.
Source: The Rewatchables
