Jennifer Lawrence still can’t describe how it feels to be nominated for Best Actress for Winter’s Bone. “I’ve been trying all morning,” she tells EW. “I still can’t really get the words out, I just… I can’t.. Ooph… As you can see. [Laughs] I’m so grateful and happy and thrilled and… tired.”
Though her name has been tossed around quite a bit during awards season, Lawrence is overwhelmed by all the attention and accolades the indie film has gotten — including a nomination for Best Picture: 
“When you make a tiny movie like that on a shoestring budget in the freezing cold — this has surpassed any expectation I could’ve had. And that’s why it just feels so good. We all made it without this in mind. We all made it because we loved and believed in the movie. And to see this happen to it and to us, there’s no feeling like it.”
Not that she didn’t recognize that the film had potential. “Once I started working with [director] Debra [Granik] and got to see what a genius she was, even before we started shooting, I thought this was going to be something so special,” Lawrence says. “But special to me. I could never have dreamed that the world would react this way.” (And Granik, for her part, is stoked to see Winter’s Bone up for the top honor: “We may be one of the lower budget films that’s ever been able to participate in something national like this,” the director told EW. “It emboldens you to keep trying, to look for more stories. It gets you all revved up. You want to deliver again. Audiences become your muse. And you want to come back to them with something worth their time. As an underdog, it gives you fuel to want to do good work and bring it back.”
Lawrence, of course, doesn’t have the trophy yet — so how does she feel about the prospect of having to beat Golden Globe winner and early favorite Natalie Portman, who is nominated for Black Swan? “I reeeaaally don’t care,” she says. “I’m going to the Oscars! [Laughs] I really am just happy to be nominated. And I saw Black Swan. I think Natalie Portman was incredible. I’d probably vote for her, too. I honestly feel like I’m in the same category and the same sentence with actresses I’ve been looking up to for most of my career.”
(Reporting by Adam Markovitz)
More Oscars 2011 reaction:
Amy Adams reacts to her third nomination
Trent Reznor reacts to Best Score nomination for ‘The Social Network’
Darren Aronofsky reacts to Best Director Oscar nomination for ‘Black Swan’
Jeremy Renner reacts to Oscar nomination for ‘The Town’
Mark Ruffalo reacts to his Oscar nod for ‘The Kids are All Right’
Oscar react: David Fincher, Mark Wahlberg and other nominees weigh in
She was wonderful in ‘Winter’s Bone.’ Looking forward to seeing her in other films. I wish her luck!
J. Lawrence was great in ‘Winters Bone’ and, based on her articulate reaction to the nomination, will hopefully have a big future in the business. I’d vote for her despite (or, possibly, because of) her inexperience.
Ha. Well I’m grateful you aren’t a member of the academy. That’s NO reason to vote for someone at all. She’s great. She’s inexperienced. She’s a star. Yes. Yes. Yes. BUT she is not the best actress of 2010. She deserved and earned that nomination 100%, I give her that much. But a win would be unfair and unbelievable. She wasn’t as good as the rest of the actors nominated here.
Boy was she wonderful in this movie.
she sounds refreshingly sincere and overwhelmed — hope this is a special experience for her and leads to other great parts. she deserves the nomination.
she was so good in this movie too bad it seems like Natalie’s year
This was a wonderful movie, a must see. This young actress did a terrific job, she has my vote.
Ah she’s awesome! Since this is probably the only category where I’ve seen all the movies, I think I’d vote for her. Now, to just get someone at the Oscars to care about my opinion…
Best film of 2010, and a performance worthy of the nomination…
This is one of the few films I saw last year that I raved about to all my friends. If Jennifer Lawrence can carry a film like this at her young age she no doubt has a bright future ahead of her!
I was so happy to see this nomination and for this amazing actress to get the recognition she so definitely deserves!
Portman and Benning may be front runners, but that doesn’t make them winners. Look for Jennifer to sneak in and take it away from them. Go Jennifer….
She is an excellent actress. Hope she is becomes one of Hollywood’s new, celebrated A-Listers
I’m so happy she got nominated, and will get some well-deserved attention as a result. This was hands down the best film I saw in 2010, and all the nominations (picture, supporting actor, actress and screenplay) are well deserved.
Im so happy for her. Im also glad that finally the movie is getting the appreciation it deserves.
I think this movie is disgusting and I refuse to watch it because an animal was actually killed during the making of it (and skinned on film). I don’t care if it was hunted legally, it is disgusting and unnecessary.
They didn’t kill the squirrels FOR the movie. There was a hunter who had ALREADY killed the squirrels and they were going to be skinned and eaten anyway, so they just used those and filmed the actors doing it instead of the hunter. I am a major animal lover but those squirrels would have been dead with or without this movie. So refusing to see it for that reason is just stupid.
No serious animal lover would watch a movie that shows an actual squirrel being skinned on screen or support a movie that is willing to do that.