Oscars rewind: A look back at Jennifer Lawrence’s road to Best Actress for ‘Silver Linings Playbook’

Recently Gold Derby revisited each of Jennifer Lawrence‘s four Oscar nominations to coincide with the release of her new movie, “No Hard Feelings.” Today we’ll go more in depth on her road to winning Best Actress for “Silver Linings Playbook” back in 2012. That win made her the second youngest Best Actress (at age 22) in Oscar history, only behind Marlee Matlin, who was 21 when she prevailed for “Children of a Lesser God” in 1986.

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In this film adaptation of Matthew Quick‘s 2008 novel of the same name, Lawrence plays Tiffany, a young widow who meets Pat Solitano Jr. (Bradley Cooper), a man with bipolar disorder, leading to an unlikely romance. The movie was written and directed by David O. Russell, who was coming off of receiving his first Oscar nom for helming 2010’s “The Fighter,” which won both supporting Oscars for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo‘s respective performances. “Silver Linings Playbook” had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2012, and it ended up winning the People’s Choice Award. From that moment on, experts not only penciled it into their predictions as a movie to watch out for going into the Oscars, but also Lawrence as a frontrunner for Best Actress.

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By the time “Silver Linings Playbook” came around, Lawrence was already an Oscar nominee for her breakout role in Debra Granik‘s 2010 indie drama “Winter’s Bone.” And earlier in 2012 she became a massive superstar with her role as Katniss Everdeen in the first “Hunger Games” movie. So it’s safe to say that she was “the girl on fire” heading into the awards season. And Lawrence managed to win Best Actress prizes from a few critics groups such as Detroit, Houston, and Los Angeles. Yet there were two other contenders nipping at her heals.

Jessica Chastain had just come on the scene the year before with prominent roles in various films such as “Take Shelter,” the Best Picture nominated “The Tree of Life,” and her Oscar-nominated supporting turn in “The Help.” Now she was already back with a starring role as the woman who successfully hunted down Osama Bin Laden in Kathryn Bigelow‘s “Zero Dark Thirty.” For that movie, Chastain won more Best Actress prizes from critics groups including Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Phoenix, St. Louis, Utah, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C., plus the National Board of Review.

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Meanwhile, legendary French actress Emmanuelle Riva had a baity role as a retired music teacher who suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of her body in Michael Haneke‘s “Amour.” She won Best Actress prizes from the César and Lumières Awards. On top of those, she prevailed with critics groups in London, Los Angeles (in a tie with Lawrence), New York, San Francisco, and the National Society.

In the morning of January 10 Oscar nominations were announced. Obviously, Ben Affleck missing out on a Best Director nom for “Argo” was the biggest headline, but there was more than that. “Zero Dark Thirty” received five bids for Best Picture, Best Actress (Chastain), Best Original Screenplay (Mark Boal), Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Editing, but Bigelow was shockingly snubbed for Best Director. Conversely, “Amour” was expected to receive bids for Best Actress (Riva), Best Original Screenplay (Haneke), and Best International Feature Film, but it surprisingly also showed up in both Best Picture and Best Director. That made “Amour” the fourth foreign language movie in history nominated for both Best Picture and Best International Feature in the same year. And at age 85, Emmanuelle Riva became the oldest Best Actress nominee in Oscar history.

“Silver Linings Playbook” also did better than expected. It was predicted to receive nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor (Cooper), Best Actress (Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Russell). However, it also showed up in three more categories: Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Jacki Weaver), and Best Film Editing. “Silver Linings Playbook” was the 14th movie in history to score noms in all four acting categories, and the first to do so since Warren Beatty‘s “Reds” back in 1981.

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The Critics Choice Awards were held that very night. “Amour” only managed to win Best Foreign Film. “Silver Linings Playbook” won the most accolades of the evening for Best Comedy Film, Best Acting Ensemble, Best Comedy Actor for Cooper, and Best Comedy Actress for Lawrence. She also managed to win Best Action Movie Actress for “The Hunger Games.” But “Zero Dark Thirty” was the film that took Best Actress for Jessica Chastain over both Jennifer Lawrence and Emmanuelle Riva.

Three days later were the Golden Globes. “Amour” only had one nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, which it prevailed in. “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Zero Dark Thirty” each had four bids. Jennifer Lawrence ended up winning Best Film Comedy/Musical Actress as the only prize for “Silver Linings Playbook” that night. When she got up on stage to accept the award, she began her speech with, “What does it say? I beat Meryl.” Many thought that was Lawrence throwing shade at one of her fellow nominees, Meryl Streep in “Hope Springs,” but she was actually quoting the 1996 comedy “The First Wives Club.” Nonetheless, she provided a funny and down-to-earth acceptance speech, dedicating the award to the cast, crew, and her family. For Best Film Drama Actress (where Emmanuelle Riva wasn’t nominated), Jessica Chastain managed to win as the only prize for “Zero Dark Thirty.”

On January 27 the Screen Actors Guild Awards took place. “Amour” didn’t have a single nomination there. Chastain was the only recognition “Zero Dark Thirty” received. Meanwhile, “Silver Linings Playbook” had four bids. Robert De Niro lost best film supporting actor to Tommy Lee Jones for “Lincoln,” Bradley Cooper lost best film actor to Daniel Day-Lewis for “Lincoln,” and best film ensemble went to “Argo.” As for best film actress, that was going to be the moment where whoever ended up winning would pull ahead in the Oscar race.

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De Niro presented the award and got to announce that the winner was his co-star Jennifer Lawrence. She began her acceptance speech talking about how she earned her SAG card at age 14 for a promo for MTV’s “My Super Sweet Sixteen,” which she at the time considered to be the best day of her entire life because it meant she became a professional actor.

On February 10 the BAFTA Awards took place. “Amour” had four nominations: Best Director (Michael Haneke), Best Actress (Emmanuelle Riva), Best Original Screenplay (Haneke), and Best Foreign Film. “Silver Linings Playbook” had three: Best Actor (Cooper), Best Actress (Lawrence), and Best Adapted Screenplay (O. Russell). “Zero Dark Thirty” had five: Best Picture, Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow), Best Actress (Jessica Chastain), Best Original Screenplay (Mark Boal), and Best Film Editing. Throughout the night, “Amour” only managed to win Best Foreign Film, “Silver Linings Playbook” won Best Adapted Screenplay, and “Zero Dark Thirty” got nothing. When it got to Best Actress, Riva ended up prevailing, which saw David O. Russell’s jaw drop in the audience. She wasn’t able to make it to the ceremony, so presenter Jeremy Renner accepted the award on her behalf.

So the race was still on for the Oscar. Lawrence at that point in the season was the frontrunner with wins from the Golden Globes and SAG Awards. Although Riva’s BAFTA win definitely gave her a fighting chance. After all, Meryl Streep won Best Actress at the BAFTAs for “The Iron Lady” the year before, which was the signal that she would ultimately upset Viola Davis (“The Help”) for the Oscar. Before that, in 2007, Marion Cotillard won at BAFTA for “La Vie en Rose” (another French film), which signaled that she would beat front-runner Julie Christie (“Away From Her”) for the Oscar.

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At last, on February 24, came the 85th Academy Awards, and all three Best Actress favorites were in attendance (it was even Emmanuelle Riva’s birthday). Near the end of the ceremony Jean Dujardin, who had won Best Actor the year before for “The Artist,” came out to present Best Actress. At that point in the evening, “Amour” had only won Best International Feature, “Zero Dark Thirty” won Best Sound Editing (in a tie with “Skyfall”), and “Silver Linings Playbook” won nothing. Finally, when the clips for all five Best Actress nominees finished, Dujardin said, “And the Oscar goes to…,” and opened the envelope to say, “Jennifer Lawrence.”

As she made her way to the stage, she famously tripped and fell on the staircase. Hugh Jackman got out of his seat to offer help, but Lawrence quickly got back on her feet. By the time she got onstage and accepted the Oscar, she received a massive standing ovation. In response, she said, “You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you.” Lawrence went on to thank the academy and her fellow nominees, calling them “magnificent” and “inspiring.” She also thanked her producers, agents, cast, crew, and family, as well as wishing Riva a happy birthday. The speech ended with “Thank you so much!”

So how did Lawrence pull through? A pre-downfall Harvey Weinstein campaigned the hell out of “Silver Linings Playbook” throughout the season. Lawrence was also very present on the campaign trail, making appearances that included “Saturday Night Live,” where she even pretended to throw some shade at her fellow nominees during her opening monologue. Plus, as I mentioned above, 2012 was a banner year for Lawrence. She began it as a brave teenager in “The Hunger Games” and ended it as a widow in “Silver Linings Playbook.” It proved what range she already had at such a young age.

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Another factor worth taking into account is that Best Actress proved to be the best opportunity to award “Silver Linings Playbook.” Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing both went to the eventual Best Picture winner, “Argo.” Any chance Jacki Weaver or anyone else had of upsetting Anne Hathaway for Best Supporting Actress after she delivered such a heartbreaking rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” in “Les Misérables” might as well have been considered “The Impossible Dream.” Robert De Niro may have been a factor in an open-ended Best Supporting Actor race, but that ended up going to Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained.” Neither Bradley Cooper nor anyone else had a prayer against Daniel Day-Lewis in Best Actor. In absence of Ben Affleck in Best Director, that race was considered to be between Ang Lee for “Life of Pi” (who ended up winning) and Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln.”

As for how Lawrence’s competition fared, Jessica Chastain lost momentum for “Zero Dark Thirty” as the season went on; the last time the Best Actress Oscar went to someone with only wins from Critics Choice and the Golden Globes was Hilary Swank for “Boys Don’t Cry” back in 1999, and the backlash against “Zero Dark” didn’t help. Emmanuelle Riva’s BAFTA win for “Amour” likely happened too late in the race for her to build momentum towards Oscar. The two remaining nominees, Quvenzhané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (who at age nine became the youngest Best Actress nominee in Oscar history) and Naomi Watts in “The Impossible,” probably didn’t have a realistic shot at the win.

Since then, Jennifer Lawrence has worked with David O. Russell twice more, both of which resulted in subsequent Oscar nominations: 2013’s “American Hustle” and 2015’s “Joy.” She also finished her run as Katniss Everdeen in all three “Hunger Games” sequels as well as Mystique in the “X-Men” franchise. Plus, she’s appeared in other Oscar nominated films such as 2021’s “Don’t Look Up” and last year’s “Causeway.” Now she’s back on the big screen with the new comedy “No Hard Feelings.”

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