No Hard Feelings director addresses “weird” Jennifer Lawrence age gap

❘ Published: 2023-10-24T16:34:04

Andrew Barth Feldman and Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings as Percy and Maddie.

Columbia Pictures

Another age gap movie for the books. Jennifer Lawrence’s No Hard Feelings comedy movie has some fans giving a side-eye to the age gap between her on-screen character and her co-star’s.

No Hard Feelings takes parent intervention a bit to the extreme. Lawrence stars as 32-year-old Maddie Barker whose car gets reposed, which isn’t ideal for an Uber driver. She finds a Craiglist ad for a car that’s really advertising a parent’s need to find a woman in their mid-20s. Why? To help bring their shy son out of his shell. Needing the car, Maddie agrees and begins to seduce 19-year-old Percy Becker (Andrew Barth Feldman).

The age gap in the movie is hard to miss as it’s very clear that Percy is a reserved and socially anxious teen who isn’t ready for the grandiose lifestyle of college. No Hard Feelings is rated R for its use of language and nudity. Yes, the scene in question is Lawrence’s moment at the beach.

Audiences watch as Lawrence’s character does her best to use her beauty to seduce Percy, get him to lose his V-card, and let loose. But No Hard Feelings’s director had to address the very obvious age gap between the characters, and the two actors.

No Hard Feelings director expected the controversy about the comedy storyline

Gene Stupnitsky directed and co-wrote the movie and expressed that the R-rated comedy movie and its age gap were taken into careful consideration.

Fans on X/Twitter were vocal about the discomfort behind Maddie and Percy’s age gap of 13 years in No Hard Feelings. One fan commented, “The age gap in #NoHardFeelings is so weird to me… I can’t even enjoy the movie.”

Another person was dismayed once realizing the striking number. They said, “I was excited to see Jennifer Lawrence in a new movie until I realized it’s about a 32-year-old dating a 19-year-old. Literally the same age gap as John Mayer and Taylor Swift, but somehow since the gender roles are reversed it’s fodder for a ‘romantic comedy.'”

According to Unilad, Stupnitsky told Looper that he compared the age gap to Lawrence’s role with Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook. For No Hard Feelings, he 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.”

Actor Feldman also expressed to Variety that everyone knew the comedy movie would receive some backlash. He implies that no R-rated raunchy comedy is without its controversies, especially as a “cringe” comedy meant to make you uncomfortable. Echoing the director’s comment, Feldman said that he and Lawrence are both adults and tackled the age gap in a “thoughtful” approach.

No Hard Feelings is streaming on Netflix now. Check out our other upcoming hubs below: