In the upcoming comedy No Hard Feelings, Jennifer Lawrence plays a down-on-her-luck Uber driver who accepts a job trying to seduce a 19-year-old whose helicopter parents dont want him heading off to college as a virgin. The task of playing the Oscar winners male lead in a raunchy R-rated comedy fell to Andrew Barth Feldman, best known until now for his stint on Broadway in Dear Evan Hanson. Feldman was already a student at Harvard University when the offer to join Lawrence in No Hard Feelings was made.
I mean, when Andrew left his audition, the door closed and we all looked at each other and we were like, Thats our thats Percy, Lawrence recently told Entertainment Tonight. Then they were like theres one complication, hes supposed to go to Harvard, and we were like, Is that a joke? He was fully the character, so I called him and said, Andrew, I have really bad news youre not gonna be able to finish your semester at Harvard. Hes gonna have to defer, or whatever college school words are.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Feldman opened up more about the No Hard Feelings audition process. Despite impressing Lawrence and the team in his audition, the young actor still had to go through a chemistry read as they finalized an actor to play Percy.
One of the last things I did was a chemistry read with her, Feldman said. It was down to me and two other guys. And I was like, Im going to have to look Jennifer Lawrence in the eyes today and say, Lets fuck. Thats something that I have to do.
However Feldman said it obviously paid off. It was Lawrence who personally called him to offer the role.
She said, Andrew, Im so sorry, youre not going to be able to go back to Harvard this semester, Feldman said. He was already at Harvard for semester, so he put his college life on pause to go to Hollywood and shoot with Lawrence.
No Hard Feelings is directed by Lawrences longtime friend Gene Stupnitsky. The duo revealed in May the movie is based on a real-life Craigslist ad.
I read it, and I thought, This is wild. Who is the woman that answers this ad? Stupnitsky told EW. And I thought, Oh, thatll be a great role for my friend Jennifer Lawrence.
Gene read the Craigslist ad to me, and I died laughing, Lawrence added. I thought it was hilarious, but there wasnt a script or anything. I just thought he had a funny idea. And then a couple years later, he handed me the funniest script Ive ever read in my life.
No Hard Feelings opens in theaters on June 23 from Sony.