Jennifer Lawrence Says Internet Backlash Cost Her a Tarantino Role

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Jennifer Lawrence arrives for the 96th annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA, 10 March 2024. The Oscars are presented for outstanding individual or collective efforts in filmmaking in 23 categories.
ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Summary:

  • Jennifer Lawrence reflects on losing role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood due to online criticism.

  • Quentin Tarantino considered Lawrence for Sharon Tate role, but casting rumors and family opinions led to Margot Robbie’s casting.

  • Lawrence also regrets turning down a role in The Hateful Eight, highlighting beauty standards and online discourse in Hollywood.

Jennifer Lawrence says online criticism over her looks may have cost her a role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and confirmed she once turned down another Quentin Tarantino project she now regrets.

During a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with host Josh Horowitz, the Oscar winner reflected on her complicated near-collaborations with Quentin Tarantino. Horowitz recalled Tarantino expressing interest in Lawrence for the role of Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which ultimately went to Margot Robbie.

“Well, he did, and then everybody was like, ‘She’s not pretty enough to play Sharon Tate,’” Lawrence said. “I’m pretty sure it is true. Or it’s that thing where I’ve been telling the story this way for so long that I believe it. No, but I’m pretty sure that happened — or he just never was considering me for the part, and the internet just, like, went out of their way to call me ugly.”

The conversation traces back to long-standing casting rumors around the 2019 film, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt and reimagined the final days of Hollywood’s golden era. Ahead of the film’s release, Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, publicly weighed in on the casting debate, telling TMZ she favored Robbie because of her resemblance to her late sister, adding that Lawrence was “not pretty enough to play Sharon.”

Tarantino later clarified on WTF with Marc Maron that while he never officially cast Lawrence as Tate, he did consider her for another role. “Early on, I investigated the idea of Jennifer Lawrence playing Squeaky,” Tarantino said in 2021, referring to Manson follower Squeaky Fromme, a role that ultimately went to Dakota Fanning.

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Lawrence also revealed on Happy Sad Confused that she turned down a major Tarantino offer earlier in her career: Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight, a part played by Jennifer Jason Leigh that earned an Oscar nomination.

“I turned it down,” Lawrence said. “I should not have done [that].”

The comments quickly reignited online discussion about beauty standards in Hollywood casting and the role internet discourse can play in shaping blockbuster decisions, especially for women at the center of franchise fame.

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