Jennifer Lawrence remembers leaving home at 14

Jennifer Lawrence gets candid about her “complicated” relationship with her home.

The actress has previously opened up about dropping out of school as a teenager to “forge my own path”, which led her to a breakout Oscar-nominated performance in the 2010s Winter’s Bone and an A-list film career. Speaking at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday at the premiere of her film CausewayLawrence, 32, shared how she could relate to the drama’s storyline.

“I felt something in my gut when I read this, the instant, ‘We’re going to do this.’ [feeling]. I identify with that feeling of trying to find your home, to find where you have a purpose,” she said, according to Weekly entertainment, gets emotional on stage. “I left home when I was 14. My relationship with home has always been complicated.”

IN Causewaywhich also stars Brian Tyree Henry and is directed by Lila Neugebauer, Lawrence plays a soldier who struggles to find his life back after returning home to New Orleans.

On 60 minutes back in 2018, Lawrence, who grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, opened up about not finishing school, venturing away from home at a young age, and how reading a script was the first time she felt smart in her life.

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“I struggled through school. I never felt very smart. And when I read this script and I feel like I know exactly what it would look like if someone felt that way, it was a whole part of my brain , which I did. I don’t even know existed, she said at the time. “Something that I could be sure of. And I didn’t want to let it go.”

“It’s so hard to explain,” Lawrence continued, “it was just an overwhelming feeling of, “I get this. That’s what I had to do.” ”

Lawrence said she had to convince her parents to let her pursue acting at age 14 — and she never looked back. “I dropped out of middle school. I don’t technically have a GED or a diploma. I’m self-educated,” she added at the time.

Did she regret the decision? “No. I really don’t. I wanted to go my own way. I found what I wanted to do and I didn’t want anything to get in the way of that. Even friends for many years weren’t that important to me as my career since I was 14.”

Causeway debuts on Apple TV+ on November 4.