Laura Benanti gushes about “smart and funny” Jennifer Lawrence, talks motherhood

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Laura Benanti pulled back the curtain on costar Jennifer Lawrence and revealed that she’s “cuter” than fans probably think.

“Within two minutes of meeting her, you forget she’s a movie star,” 43-year-old Benanti told Exclusively Us weekly on Friday, June 23, while promoting their movie No hard feelings. ‘She’s just a woman. She’s just an ordinary person who’s kind and smart and funny and thoughtful and hardworking and involved.

The New York native plays Allison Becker in the film, who, along with her husband, Laird (Matthew Broderick), enlist Maddie (Lawrence) to help their shy teenage son Percy (Andrew Bart Feldman), coming out of his shell before going to college.

Laura Benanti and Jennifer Lawrence Gregory Tempo/Shutterstock; Richie Buxo/Shutterstock

While Benanti portrays a teenage mother in the film, in reality, both she and Lawrence, 32, have much younger children. The Tony winner shares daughters Ella, 6, and Louisa, 11 months, with husband Patrick BrownWhile the hunger games star welcomed her first child, son Cy, with husband Cook Maroney in February 2022.

“I’m not in the habit of giving advice to people, but we definitely exchanged stories,” Benanti said Us when asked about her and Lawrence’s ongoing parenting discussions. “You know, [the] good and bad. Like, “Today I had a hard time.” Or: “I miss my child.” Solidarity in motherhood is very important to me.”

The Broadway star commented that she didn’t want to be “broadcast.” [their] private conversations” and preferred to “respect” Lawrence that way. However, Benanti revealed that the costars bonded over the “joys of motherhood, the challenges of motherhood, what we’re trying to do, what we want different doing’.

The super girl alum gushed: “She’s a normal person, [who deals with] all the things every other mother feels.

Benanti joked that the Oscar winner’s personality became even more apparent on set after she and Broderick, 61, reportedly encountered ghosts.

After a late night shoot, Benanti and Broderick stayed in “a beautiful old sort of castle of a hotel” so they could be ready for their early call time. Benanti described space Us as “absolutely terrifying” and “full of ghosts” during the renovations.

Although Broderick did not believe in supernatural beings, Benanti was convinced that something eerie was going on at the hotel. The creepy night, which also saw a handyman working the floors at 1 a.m., “led to a conversation on set that day about haunted houses,” which lured Lawrence.

“Jen and I were super into the conversation, to the point where we thought, ‘Action.’ We were like ‘Wait a minute!’ [and kept talking],’” Benanti recalled. “So that was a nice turn of events.”

No hard feelings now playing in cinemas.

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi