In theaters since Wednesday, “The Challenge” is a comedy in which Jennifer Lawrence tries at all costs to charm a 19-year-old teenager.
What is it about ? Maddie is on the verge of losing her childhood home and she thinks she has found the solution to her financial troubles when she comes across an intriguing job offer: wealthy parents are looking for someone to take their introverted 19-year-old son Percy years, in a series of “dates” to loosen him up before he leaves for college. Much to Maddie’s surprise, Percy makes this challenge more complicated than expected and time is running out. She has one summer to take up this challenge or find herself homeless.
A real classified ad
The project was born out of Jennifer Lawrence’s desire to collaborate with her friend, writer-director Gene Stupnitsky. One evening, during a dinner, the actress asked Stupnitsky what he was working on, and he told her of his inspiration: a real ad on the American classifieds site Craigslist, which the producers Marc Provissiero and Naomi Odenkirk had found.
An overprotective parent was looking for a young woman there for his shy and inexperienced son, in order to seduce him – not only for his “first time”, but also to transform him from a nerdy high school student to a cool and confident student. . The ad implied that the parent would pay handsomely for a job well done.
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A new register
Despite an already rich career and an Oscar for best actress, Jennifer Lawrence has long felt that her filmography lacked a genre: “I always wanted to do a comedy. But I hadn’t found the right one”. She adds that it was a pleasure to do “Something totally different…a totally different genre, with funny scenes and goofy dialogue that I was excited about! Shooting this movie, alongside a brilliant and hilarious crew, was a lot of fun.”
Director Gene Stupnitsky knew the actress’ comedic timing and considered it hadn’t really been shown on screen until then. Producer Alex Saks develops: “She’s hilarious in person, and Gene’s idea was to introduce audiences to a version of Jen that only her close friends know. When you see her performance on set, it’s a no-brainer, but until then, nobody hadn’t seen her the same way Gene had.”
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An actor from Broadway
The production thought that finding the interpreter of Percy would be complicated, and decided to carry out a large casting. But a candidate was easily imposed: Andrew Barth Feldman, who has proven himself on Broadway. “When Andrew walked in we all knew immediately it was him”says Jennifer Lawrence. “We met Andrew on the second day of casting and I immediately thought he was good. […] We auditioned other people, but I was relaxed, because I knew we had Andrew. It was clear, it had always been him”says the director.
push the song
Andrew Barth Feldman being an accomplished singer – he held the lead role in the play Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway – director Gene Stupnitsky decided to adapt the character of Percy based on his talents: “I thought it had to be in the movie. It added to his character – he’s someone who acts and performs, but not in front of people – just in his bedroom.”
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One hell of a wig
Screenwriter John M. Phillips was surprised that Matthew Broderick agreed to wear the wig planned for his character: “We thought he would try it and say: “Get the hell out of here, I won’t wear that shit”. Instead, he came and said: “It’s not great ?” I think those were my favorite days on set: I couldn’t stop laughing at his hair.” The actor had a lot of fun with this accessory: “It’s such a massive wig that even though I suck in the movie, the wig will do the performance for me.”