“I’m afraid everybody’s going to get sick of me,” Jennifer Lawrence fretted at the Golden Globes last Sunday.

Ostensibly, this is a legitimate worry and not false modesty, because for the past year the actress has been kind of inescapable.

Let’s start with the Oscar nomination she got Thursday for her supporting turn in “American Hustle,” becoming, at 23, the youngest three-time acting nominee in the history of the Academy Awards. Last weekend, her role as an unhappy suburban housewife in David O. Russell’s film scored her a Globe, and she has a good shot at winning a Screen Actors Guild award on Saturday.

PHOTOS: Oscars 2014 nominee reactions


This follows the second installment in “The Hunger Games” franchise — in which she plays the arrow-toting Katniss Everdeen — the highest-grossing film of 2013. With $414 million in ticket sales, “Catching Fire” was the first movie in 40 years with a female protagonist to top the box office charts.

She also won lead actress honors at the Oscars last February for her turn in “Silver Linings Playbook.” Oh, and in 2011 she was nominated by the academy for her breakout performance in “Winter’s Bone.” The range of her roles, from determined backwoods heroine to loopy Jersey housewife, has been remarkable for someone so young.

In an era when most celebrities face backlash the instant they become ubiquitous, Lawrence has managed to retain her It-girl status for nearly two years. And if she wins the Oscar this year, she’ll join another elite club: Only five actors have ever won Academy Awards back-to-back — the last being Tom Hanks, who took home a golden statue for “Philadelphia” (1993) and “Forrest Gump” (1994).

PHOTOS: Oscars 2014 snubs and surprises


Suffice to say, she’s been on a hot streak career-wise, proving she can carry both commercial films and earn critical respect. But perhaps more remarkable is how she’s endeared herself to millennials as the ideal BFF, not only eschewing typical Hollywood conventions but brazenly speaking out against them.

On red carpets, she often spends more time talking about how hungry she is than the movie she’s in. She hates the television show “Fashion Police,” the E! program featuring Joan Rivers, because its hosts judge celebrities for their looks. This fall, she cut off all of her hair — not for a role — opting for a pixie cut even though most leading ladies flaunt flowing locks.

Sure, she’s still the glamorous face of Dior. But she also trips on her Dior gowns: At the Oscars last year, as she was walking up the stairs to accept her prize, she tumbled over her haute couture dress. The moment instantly went viral, the ultimate “Stars: They’re Just Like Us!” moment in GIF format.

So just how big a star is Lawrence? Asked about her on Thursday, her “American Hustle” costar — and lead actress nominee — Amy Adams said, “I’d rather not speak on Jennifer because everything I say becomes a headline.”


amy.kaufman@latimes.com



