Jennifer Lawrence is a shape-shifter.

Not literally, of course. But on a metaphorical level, J-Law is as close to a shape-shifter as a human being can get.

Like her on-screen mutant alter ego Mystique, Lawrence can effortlessly morph into anybody she wants to be.

PURE, RAW ABILITY

Just look at the characters she has brought to life; from the humourous Lauren Pearson in The Bill Engvall Show, to the silently suffering Agnes in The Poker House, to the confident overachiever Norah in The Beaver, to the bordering on insane Tiffany Maxwell in The Silver Linings Playbook, to the agoraphobic Rosalyn Rosenfeld in American Hustle, and to the strong and independent Ree Dolly in Winter’s Bone and Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. Add in the equally chameleon-esque Mystique in the X-Men films.

Lawrence’s resume screams variety and diversity, and it is almost breathtaking. Because she was convincing as each and every one of these vastly different characters.

To make this feat more impressive, Lawrence’s real-life personality is one of endearing awkwardness, effortless humour and the charming absence of a filter. And that is vastly different from any of the characters she played.

Not that we need more evidence of Lawrence’s acting abilities, but her accolades are enough to solidify the fact that this Kentucky native is loaded on talent. By age 23, Lawrence had won an Academy Award and bagged three Oscar nominations in four years. And Lawrence has never taken an acting class in her life.

Even the goddess of acting that is Meryl Streep is a trained actress; Streep graduated from the Yale School of Drama. Lawrence, with no formal training or exceptionally rough childhood to draw upon emotional intensity, is the epitome of pure, raw talent.

And it is owing to this rare talent, and likely to good career management by her agents, that Lawrence is effectively Hollywood’s resident multi-talented multi-tasker.

And virtually no other actor, especially with such relatively few years in the industry, has been able to pull this off. And for good reason; the curse of film franchises.

IMMUNITY FROM A DOSE OF TALENT AND TIMING

Popular franchises often make and break actors; often, the actor’s association with the franchise both brings him fame and makes it impossible for him to successfully move on to future projects when said franchise is over. As is the case for the Harry Potter cast and, dare we reluctantly acknowledge, the Twilight cast, audiences can never watch these actors in other films and not see them in relation to the franchises that launched their careers. And when the audience cannot disassociate the actor from another character, the actor fails in portraying the current character at hand.

The actors immune from the curse of film franchises are the ones whose careers were not established by said franchise, the ones who were established thespians before joining the film series. Their names are not synonymous with the franchise, and they are in no way bound to it.

Lawrence currently juggles two major characters in two major franchises; Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and Mystique in X-Men. She is undoubtedly immune to the franchise curse, but she was not an already legendary Meryl Streep or Christian Bale when she first entered the Arena for District 12. Yes, she had an Oscar nomination in the bag, but she was still up-and-coming. So how was she immune?

As aforementioned, she owes it to raw talent and good career management and timing.

As Kevin Fallon pointed out in The Daily Beast, Lawrence’s patiently paced entry to Hollywood fame and recognition is ideal. She gained some spotlight with her Oscar-worthy performance in Winter’s Bone, and that opened doors for future high profile projects. She truly burst into the scene as Mystique in X-Men, and became a worldwide sensation as the film industry’s most successful heroine to date, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. We were slowly introduced to Lawrence in a variety of projects, which meant that our mental image of her was not tied to one career-defining role.

And Lawrence did more to flaunt her talent for handling diversity. After The Hunger Games, she went on to earn an Oscar portraying a vastly different character; her breathtaking performance as the multi-layered and almost insane widowed sex addict Tiffany Maxwell in Silver Linings Playbook. The second Hunger Games film followed, then a second Oscar nod followed in yet another vastly different role in American Hustle.

Then, she morphed back to the literally multi-faceted Mystique in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Lawrence is immune to the franchise curse because she “interrupted Katniss with wildly different characters in major films between each Hunger Games installment”. As Fallon so elegantly put it, Lawrence has had the opportunity to showcase her talent because she has “managed to ensure that she’s not known only for Katniss.”

SIMPLY J-LAW

When you watch Jennifer Lawrence in any of her roles, you know that she is the same actress who played Katniss Everdeen, Mystique, Tiffany Maxwell and Rosalyn Rosenfeld. Yet you instantly forget all her past credentials, try as hard as you may, when you watch her morph into another character on-screen. She becomes whoever she needs to be at that moment, and all her other characters and movies need only be remembered at their respective release dates.

Fallon is right. Lawrence’s resume is so diverse and accomplished that we might not remember her for her Oscar-winning performance in Silver Linings Playbook, or her female-empowering financial success in The Hunger Games.

We might not remember her for any label besides the fact that she is simply Jennifer Lawrence.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a true shape-shifter.