The Cast of Jennifer Lawrence's 'No Hard Feelings' Just Clapped Back at Critics Saying the Age Gap is "Creepy"

First of all, it's a work of fiction.

Jennifer Lawrence is back on the big screen with her first-ever comedy (unless you count Silver Linings Playbook, which, no judgment there), No Hard Feelings. And while some critics are applauding her and calling the film the perfect project to get her back in the swing of things post-baby — Vanity Fair said the movie was a "reminder of why audiences fell in love with her in the first place" — other outlets are calling the R-rated movie "creepy" because of its premise and the age gap between the leads, Lawrence, 32, and Andrew Barth Feldman, who is 21.

For anyone who needs a quick rundown of the plot (spoilers ahead), it goes a little something like this, according to BuzzFeed: "cash-strapped bartender who gets hired by a wealthy and overbearing couple to have sex with their 19-year-old son, Percy."

Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti — the actors that play Percy's parents in the film — addressed criticism that came from Rolling Stone and the Independent, who noted that the whole plot (which is based on a real Craigslist ad) is "creepy." Broderick and Benanti said that the critics missed the point and that everyone involved knows that the whole situation is “insane” and that the film is actually a “cautionary tale” for overbearing parents.

Related: Jennifer Lawrence Just Addressed Those Rumors That She Had a "Secret Fling" With Liam Hemsworth

“If you are a helicopter parent who puts your child in such a bubble, they do not know how to exist outside of that bubble. You are going to make the exact opposite and insane choice, which is what they are doing here,” Benanti told the Hollywood Reporter at the movie's premiere. “I feel like it is a very satirical look at what can happen if you do not give your children a longer leash to figure things out for themselves. Otherwise, you’re going to end up curating their life forever.”

Broderick also commented on the matter, saying that he's encountered some over-the-top parents as he raised his children.

“I guess what happens is when a kid goes off to school, it’s so frightening that they’ll be happy and they’ll make friends and they’ll take care of themselves that some parents go to any length to make that transition work,” he said. “And it’s a hard time … But you really have to let them make it on their own. But these parents decide to mess with nature.”

In the lead-up to the film's release, Lawrence even joked that the movie was “so offensive and so wrong.” And for anyone keeping score, there were few critics calling out the 15-year age difference between Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook.

“It goes the other way, too,” writer and director Gene Stupnitsky said. “We took great pains to be careful about the ick factor because it could go that way … We took a humanist approach, and I think that’s all you can ask for.”

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