Francis Lawrence has described Jennifer Lawrence as an "instinctual actor".
The 46-year-old filmmaker has collaborated with the actress on a number of movies including three of the ‘Hunger Games’ films as well as the new spy thriller ‘Red Sparrow’, and discussing her working methods he has revealed she isn’t "big on rehearsal".
In an interview with Den of Geek, Francis said: "The weird thing is on the ‘Hunger Games’ films she obviously knew – because I came in on the second movie and did three – but she knew the character.
"She’s also not big on rehearsal, she’s happy to do whatever I want to do, so I learned this on the first ‘Hunger Games’ film, I brought her in, and she didn’t really want to rehearse, so I just talked. I talked about how she’s feeling, and I gave her little tentpole moments to think about in terms of emotional value throughout the script, and we spent an hour or two or something doing that. But she’s just really an instinctual actor, and likes to live in the moment on set, and lets me plant her where she needs to be planted, and then just goes, and that stays the same."
The new film follows Russian prima ballerina-turned-spy Dominika Egorova [Lawrence] who faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career.
She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons and becomes a Russian spy.
Egorova emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, Dominika meets CIA agent Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust leading to her considering becoming a double agent.
And the filmmaker admitted he never wanted to make an "erotic thriller" and spoke with the actress a lot about how to not make the film sexy.
He said: "I think what we spoke about the most on this movie is just the content in general, so once she signed on we started to communicate about that immediately, so neither of us were going to tip toe around it, ever. That we could be as frank as possible. But also so she and I together could be as vigilant as possible about making sure those moments were very specific to the narrative, to the tone, to the themes, to the character, because both of our goals were that we were not making an erotic thriller.
"None of it is meant to titillate. Somebody’s always titillate by something, the wind blows and somebody’s titillated, but the case was never to film a scene to be sexy, so we together communicated a lot about that."
Francis Lawrence says Jennifer Lawrence is an instinctual actor
