Jennifer Lawrence is one of the most in-demand actresses at the moment. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress her portrayal of a troubled widow for 212's Silver Linings Playbook, and then another Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for 2013's American Hustle. She was the highest-paid actress in 2015 and 2016 and made the Forbes Celebrity 100 list consecutively from 201 to 2016.
Needless to say, it's hard to imagine there's anyone in the entertainment industry that wouldn't want to work with J-Law. But one of the biggest directors, Quentin Tarantino, has turned down the opportunity to work with Jenifer on multiple occasions. Here's what we know about why Quentin refuses to cast her in his films.
RELATED: Jennifer Lawrence Has A Strict Rule In Her Contract About Losing Weight For A Role
The first time Quentin considered Jennifer for one of his movies was when he was casting for 2015's The Hateful Eight, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kurt Russell. "In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters," the IMDB synopsis explains.
Earlier this year, Quentin revealed that he wanted Jennifer to audition for the movie, which she obliged. While he hoped to work with her, J-Law's other commitments couldn't accommodate the filming schedule.
Quentin says it worked out for the best, since Jennifer was working on some of the biggest movies of her career, at least for the time. If she took on any other projects, her career could've looked very different. "I'm a huge Jennifer Lawrence fan.And I can see her doing a good job with this role, so we went to talk about it and everything," the director told Entertainment Weekly.
RELATED: Jennifer Lawrence Revealed Her Crush On Seth Meyers During Their Interview, And The Late Night Host Was Praised For His Reaction
"She was just doing me a courtesy to see me, I think," he continued. "She was doing Joy. She had to do all this publicity on the Hunger Games movies. There was just no f**king way in the world that she was available."
The role eventually went to Jennifer Jason Leigh, who Quentin says was a perfect choice. "Having said that, I'm glad I didn't cast somebody that young. I think I absolutely positively made the right choice, as far as the ages of the characters," he said.
Quentin and Jennifer almost had the chance to work together again a few years later, though it ultimately didn't work out.
In 2021, during an appearance on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Quentin admitted that he almost cast Jennifer in his 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which explored the murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate by several of Marilyn Manson's cult members through the vantage point of a washed up actor and his employee. It stars Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
"A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood's Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles," the IMDB description explains.
RELATED: The Hunger Games Set Gave Jennifer Lawrence Instant Fame, But It Was Also Toxic
The director revealed he originally wanted to cast J-Law as Squeaky, one of the cult members. "Early on, in the pre-production of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, I flirted around with the idea of ... Jennifer Lawrence playing Squeaky," Quentin explained.
"She came down to the house to read the script, 'cause I wasn't letting it out,'" he went on. "So, she came down to the house and I gave her the script and said, 'Go in my living room or go outside by the pool and read it.'"
Quentin said that he was so interested in working with her, he had his team reach out to set up an audition, which he agreed to.
Jennifer initially seemed onboard with the project. But Quentin admits it didn't work out in the end, though he didn't share why Jennifer eventually passed on the role. "She read it, and afterward, we talked about it a little bit. She was interested in doing it, but something didn't work out," he explained.
In the end, the role of Squeaky went to Elle Fanning, which Quentin said worked out for the best. "I couldn't be happier with what Dakota Fanning did; it's one of the best performances in the movie," he said in the same interview. "I think she's amazing as Squeaky Fromme. She becomes [her]."
Luckily, there doesn't appear to be bad blood between Quentin and Jennifer. During the same WTF podcast interview, the director hinted he's open to working with J-Law in the future, as he referred to her as "a very nice person, and I respect her as an actress."
After welcoming her first child in 2022, Jennifer took a brief hiatus from her career, but had returned with multiple movies in recent years, including 2022's Causeway and 2023's Bread and Roses.
Quentin and Jennifer clearly have an interest in working together, so perhaps they'll have the chance to collaborate in the future. Fingers crossed, for fans' sake!