Creating an Oscar-worthy character
Every year, there is a performance so powerful in independent cinema, that it becomes part of the popular culture lexicon. Cesar Albarran asked director Debra Granick how she worked with young Jennifer Lawrence to create her award-winning character in Winter’s Bone.
Think of Gabourey Sibide, who captured world audiences as Precious, or of Ellen Page and her performance in Juno, which propelled her to an Academy Award nomination in 2008. Both films portray an unglamorous face of the United States rarely shown on screen. In 2010, the torch is passed to Jennifer Lawrence, the young star of Winter’s Bone, a Sundance darling (it won the 2010 Grand Jury Prize) that has been hailed by critics as one of the most important American films of recent times.
The film, directed by Granick, tells the story of Ree Dolly, a young woman who lives in the Ozark Mountains, a rural area of the United States struck by financial grievances and drug trafficking, but also home to ancient lore and bound by filial laws. Dolly has to save the family property after the disappearance of her father. She also has to procure for her two siblings and her ill mother while embarking in an improbable quest to unveil the dark secrets of her community and her kin.
Granick describes the character as “a hero in a girl’s body”, stating that the role “follows either the trajectory of a very dark fairy tale about a girl who goes into the woods, having to prove herself worth; or the American western, in which you have to cross a line into some kind of hostile territory.”
Only a gifted actress could pull off the insurmountable physical and emotional tasks posed by such a role. Jennifer Lawrence fills Ree Dolly’s shoes with temperance and a dramatic tempo rarely seen in an actress her age (she was born in 1990).
The director clarifies that many scenes that showed a gentler, less stoic side of the character were left in the editing table, and that those choices were taken to benefit the mounting mystery in the plot. Still, Lawrence has created a multidimensional character that should be included in the highlight reels of this year’s best.
As for the appeal this character might have for world audiences, Granick states: “Here is Ree Dolly, and she lives in a very specific place of the United States that people don’t see photographed that often. There is an inherent interest, people are curious… Maybe that is also why The Wire –HBO’s television drama about drug-trafficking in inner-city Baltimore– is of interest”.
Moreover, Winter’s Bone might grant Lawrence a place among the talented generation of Hollywood young actresses that includes Carey Mulligan, Chloe Moretz, Amanda Seyfried and Page. For starters, she has taken on the role of Mystique in the upcoming X-Men: First Generation, a reboot of the mutant superhero franchise. In February, she might very well go out on a date with Oscar.
Winter’s Bone will be released by Curious Distribution on November 11.
