The Challenge, a comedy in which Jennifer Lawrence tries at all costs to charm a 19-year-old teenager, hits theaters on Wednesday.
Why is ? Maddie is on the brink of losing her childhood home and thinks she’s found the solution to her financial woes when she stumbles upon an interesting job opportunity: wealthy parents are looking for someone to kill their introverted 19-year-old son, Percy. on a series of “dates” to loosen him up before he goes to college. Much to Maddie’s surprise, Percy makes this challenge more complicated than expected and time is running out. She has one summer to face this challenge, otherwise she will be homeless.
A real classified ad
The project grew out of Jennifer Lawrence’s desire to collaborate with her boyfriend, writer-director Gene Stupnitsky. One evening, during a dinner, the actress asked Stupnitsky what he was working on and he told her about his inspiration: a real advertisement on the American classifieds site Craigslist found by producers Marc Provissiero and Naomi Odenkirk.
An overprotective parent was there looking for a young woman for his shy and inexperienced son to seduce him – not only for his “first time” but also to transform him from a nerdy high school student into a cool and confident student. . The ad suggested that the parents would pay a high price for a good job.
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A new register
Despite an already rich career and a Best Actress Oscar, Jennifer Lawrence has long felt that her filmography is missing a genre: “I’ve always wanted to do a comedy. But I hadn’t found the right one.” She adds that it was a pleasure to do “something completely different…a completely different genre, with funny scenes and ridiculous dialogue that I was looking forward to! It was a lot of fun making this film alongside a brilliant and hilarious crew.”
Director Gene Stupnitsky knew the actress’ comedic timing and felt it hadn’t really been shown on screen before. Producer Alex Saks elaborates, “She’s hilarious in person, and Gene’s idea was to give audiences a version of Jen that only her close friends would know. Watching her perform on set is a no-brainer, but until then no one had seen her the same way Gene had.
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An actor from Broadway
The production figured that finding Percy’s interpreter would be complicated and decided to do a major casting. But one candidate was easy to push through: Andrew Barth Feldman, who has proven himself on Broadway. “When Andrew walked in, we all knew right away it was him,” says Jennifer Lawrence. “We met Andrew on the second day of casting and I immediately liked him. […] We auditioned other people, but I was relaxed knowing we had Andrew. “It was clear, he always was,” says the director.
Press the song
Because Andrew Barth Feldman was an accomplished singer – he starred in the Broadway play Dear Evan Hansen – director Gene Stupnitsky decided to adapt the character of Percy to suit his talents: “I figured it had to be in the movie. ” . It added to his character – he’s someone who acts and performs but not in front of people – just in his bedroom.”
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A damn good wig
Screenwriter John M. Phillips was surprised when Matthew Broderick agreed to wear his character’s wig: “We thought he’d try it on and he’d be like, ‘Get out of here, I’m not wearing that. Stuff’.” “Instead, he came over and said, ‘Isn’t that great?’ I think those were my favorite days on set: I kept laughing at his hair.” The actor had a lot of fun with this accessory: “It’s a wig so massive that even if I suck the film in, the wig does the work for me.”