Jennifer Lawrence’s Little Known Cameo In ‘Star Trek Beyond’


You’re not alone if you missed the news about Jennifer Lawrence being a part of Star Trek Beyond. The actress has taken turns in the X-Men franchise and the science fiction series, The Hunger Games.

While Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t actually appear in Star Trek Beyond, she’s a member of the cast in spirit. Or at least, another character she once played is a member of the cast.

It turns out that when Simon Pegg and Justin Lin were coming up with one of the alien heroines of Star Trek Beyond, they looked to the character Lawrence played in Winter’s Bone. It was this character that first got Lawrence her start as a bonafide star in Hollywood.

Pegg and Lin were very many fans of the strong and independent Ree, Lawrence’s character in the flick. Vulture reports Pegg, who also plays Scotty in Star Trek Beyond, talked about how they came up with the character at a recent press conference.

“We were trying to create this very independent character. But we didn’t have a name for it, so we just called it ‘Jennifer-Lawrence-In-Winter’s-Bone. That’s a long name, so it started getting tiring always saying, well Jennifer-Lawrence-In-Winter’s-Bone is fighting here. So then we started calling her J-Law. And then she became Jaylah.”

Pegg explained. For those who haven’t seen the trailers, Jaylah plays some part in helping the crew of the USS Enterprise take on the very dark and very deadly enemies they face in Star Trek Beyond. While J-Law is someone who is going to leave big shoes to fill for almost anyone, Pegg believes the actress who plays Jaylah has done an admirable job.

Sofia Boutella, who plays the alien woman in the new film, doesn’t have a ton of blockbusters under her belt. Perhaps like Lawrence, she can take on the space age version of Ree and parlay that into a brand new career.

The writers for the film have said Sofia has done a great job so far, and she needs to do that kind of a job because there aren’t nearly enough women in the film. People reports another part of the press conference had Pegg talking about how the writers for this new Trek understood Zoe Saldana had quite a lot on her shoulders.

The writers wanted to increase the number of women that would play a central role in the film. Basing one of the characters on Jennifer Lawrence and her own character was a way to make sure they had a strong presence.

It’s actually quite interesting that Lawrence has never done a movie in this genre, especially when you look at her body of work. When she does do action movies, she tends to move towards science fiction rather than straight shoot-em-ups.

Some might say Lawrence would be perfect for a role in the world of the Enterprise. Unable or unwilling to get the real Jennifer Lawrence, Sofia Boutella apparently showed she could take on the role of Jaylah after playing Gazelle in Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Despite her character in Star Trek Beyond not having a ton in common with the artificial limbed assassin, she plays the part with a certain class and grace you wouldn’t expect in a woman wearing razor legs. It’s possible Jennifer Lawrence would even see something in common between Ree and Gazelle.

It’s also possible it would be a bit of a stretch to see much in common with Lawrence’s character and Boutella’s, but they have something in common now. Now we’ll just have to wait and see whether Jaylah’s performance in Star Trek Beyond reminds anyone else of Jennifer Lawrence.

[Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]

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