Jennifer Lawrence to take 'long break' from Hollywood, says Harvey Weinstein

The American Hustle star is due some time off from her busy schedule

Jennifer Lawrence 'deserves a rest' says producer Harvey Weinstein (Getty Images)

Jennifer Lawrence might be on the verge of a year’s hiatus from Hollywood, according to producer Harvey Weinstein.

The August: Osage County producer voiced his opinion that Lawrence, 23, “deserves a rest” after a hectic filming schedule on movies such as The Hunger Games franchise, X-Men: Days of Future Past and American Hustle.

“She's going to have a long break for a year where she won't do anything. Jennifer is too nice and will do people favours and agrees to do a movie like American Hustle when she could have had a rest,” Weinstein reportedly told the Sun on Sunday.

“She signed on to do Hunger Games when she was young and wouldn’t have realised how much it would dominate her life. But she’s a professional and always will be.”

Lawrence was absent from the Baftas in London’s Covent Garden last week, which Weinstein said was more than justified. The Oscar-winning actress won Best Supporting Actress for her role as neurotic housewife Rosalyn Rosenfeld in David O Russell’s American Hustle, beating tough competition from 12 Years a Slave star Lupita Nyong'o.

O Russell had to apologise in January after he sparked outrage by describing Lawrence's Hunger Games filming schedule as "12 years of slavery".

Lawrence is nominated for her second Oscar at the Academy Awards ceremony next Sunday 2 March, after taking the Best Actress accolade in 2013 for her performance alongside Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook. Weinstein worked with her in the latter film about two lovers with psychological issues.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, O Russell revealed how Lawrence won her role in Silver Linings Playbook. “I asked her to cry and she made me cry. Then she went and killed a spider in the bathroom that was behind her, which was just kind of amazing to me” he said about her 2011 Skype audition.

"She had cried so she went to get a tissue, then when she went in the bathroom she went, ‘Ah, there’s a gigantic spider in the bathroom!’"

"Then she imitated how the spider went when she tried to attack the spider. That fascinated me as much as anything else. She was unlike anybody I’d ever seen, unlike anybody I’d ever met."

American Hustle is nominated for 10 Oscars (Getty Images)

O Russell took the Skype tape to Weinstein who was convinced of Lawrence's talent within just 30 seconds. In an earlier interview with Empire magazine, Lawrence spoke of her plans to "turn her phone off for a year" after finishing shooting for the final Hunger Games instalments.

Perhaps she wasn’t joking, or perhaps she is concerned about over-exposure, alongside needing a good sleep. “I feel like I’m becoming way too much, everybody is very fickle,” she told Vulture in November. “They like me now, but I’m going to get really annoying really fast. Just watch.”