It’s been a jaw-dropping 12 years—yes, really—since a 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence tripped over her Dior couture on the way to the Oscar podium to collect her best-actress prize for Silver Linings Playbook. Backstage afterward, a reporter asked her if she, now with one Academy Award and two nominations to her credit, was worried about peaking too early.
“Well, now I am,” the actor replied, laughing and looking faux-exasperated.
Happily, Lawrence did nothing of the sort, her career settling into a steady rhythm following an incredibly rapid early rise. And now, at 35, she may just be gearing up for another Oscar campaign, what with Lynne Ramsay’s mind-bending thriller Die My Love—in which Lawrence plays a new mother battling postpartum depression and psychosis—earning raves at Cannes. (It lands in theaters this November.) Here’s hoping.
But first, in honor of her birthday today, we take a look back at Jennifer Lawrence’s most memorable performances to date.
Winter’s Bone (2010)
The actor’s breakout role, at just 19, as the fresh-faced, steely teen traveling through the merciless Ozarks in search of her deadbeat dad, may still be her best. Debra Granik’s clear-eyed portrait of life on the fringes earned the endlessly compelling and astonishingly assured newcomer her first Oscar nomination—and the industry’s undivided attention.
