Jennifer Lawrence’s Career Wake-Up Call: The Role Adele Warned Her Not to Take

Jennifer Lawrence’s rise in Hollywood was nothing short of meteoric. By 22, she had not only headlined the billion-dollar Hunger Games franchise but also won the Best Actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook. She was the youngest performer in decades to achieve such acclaim, and her career seemed untouchable.

But just a few years later, the momentum that had propelled her to the industry’s highest peak began to waver—culminating in what Lawrence now calls her biggest professional misstep: signing on to the 2016 sci-fi romance Passengers, despite a clear warning from a trusted friend.

“Adele told me not to do it”
In a candid interview with The New York Times, Lawrence revealed that it was none other than British singer Adele who advised her to turn the project down. “Adele told me not to do it,” she admitted. “She was like, ‘I feel like space movies are the new vampire movies.’ I should have listened to her.”

The film, which paired Lawrence with Chris Pratt, was both a critical and commercial disappointment. It became a turning point in her career—a reminder of how quickly an A-list trajectory can falter after a few poorly received projects.

Losing control after early success
Lawrence traces the root of the decision back to the whirlwind period between the Hunger Games explosion in 2012 and her Oscar win in 2013. “I lost a sense of control between Hunger Games coming out and winning the Oscar,” she told audiences at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival. “I felt like every decision was a big group decision. I think of those following years as a loss of control and then a reaction to try and get that back.”

After the final Hunger Games installment in 2015, she began to sense her connection with fans slipping. “I was like, ‘Oh no, you guys are here because I’m here, and I’m here because you’re here. Wait—who decided that this was a good movie?’”

A break to rebuild
By 2018, frustrated with what she described as a string of uninspiring projects, Lawrence left her agency, CAA, to regain control over her career. “I felt like more of a celebrity than an actor,” she said. “I had let myself be hijacked… I found out that a lot of filmmakers that I really loved and admired had scripts that weren’t even reaching me.”

That break led to a reset—and the creation of her production company, Excellent Cadaver. In 2022, the company’s debut film, Causeway, directed by Lila Neugebauer, marked Lawrence’s return to the intimate, character-driven storytelling that had defined her early success.

A lesson in listening—and in choosing wisely
Looking back, Passengers stands as a cautionary tale in Lawrence’s otherwise glittering career, a reminder that even the brightest stars can stumble when industry pressures eclipse personal instinct.

And as she’s the first to admit—sometimes it pays to take Adele’s advice.

If you want, I can also rewrite this in a more entertainment-magazine style with snappy pull quotes and subheadings so it reads like a Vanity Fair or Variety profile—perfect for a celebrity feature. That style would make the Adele connection even more of a hook.