This world-famous actress born in Kentucky started her career in acting at just 16 years old and quickly became one of the most popular actresses in the world. Is this star left-handed?
Jennifer Lawrence is left-handed. Lawrence both writes with her left hand and plays sports left-handed, and while she is not ambidextrous in writing, she has been able to learn to use some tools or athletic equipment right-handed.
Read more below to find out about Lawrence’s preference for her left hand, and which sport she learned to play right-handed.
Lawrence’s Left-Handedness
Though left-handed people only make up about ten percent of the world’s population, there are many left-handed celebrities in the entertainment industry. Jennifer Lawrence is one of them, her left-handedness featured in tweeted fun facts like this one, with a picture of Lawrence writing with her left hand.
Her loyal fans also love this about her, posting tweets like this one which reads, “Jennifer Lawrence is left-handed, I’m left-handed. Therefore, Jennifer Lawrence and I should be best friends.”
Lawrence appears on many famous left-handers or southpaws lists alongside other fan-favorite actresses like Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, and Julia Roberts, music artists like Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, comedians like Will Ferrell and Tina Fey, as well as other well-known figures like Barack Obama, Keanu Reeves, and Gordon Ramsay.
Check out the YouTube video below to learn about which other celebrities are also left-handed, from star athletes to world-renowned singers and artists.
The Ambidextrous Archer
Lawrence is best known for her roles in Marvel’s X-Men film series as the shapeshifter Raven Darkhölme or Mystique and in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins as the protagonist Katniss Everdeen.
While she was growing up, Lawrence played softball, field hockey, and basketball, and was also a cheerleader. While shooting The Hunger Games movies, there was a lot of athleticism involved, including “running, fighting, whatever it is,” which they did “for twelve hours a day or more,” Lawrence explained.
Sports weren’t Lawrence’s favorite activity while growing up, but joined them because of her family. “Our parents had a rule, we all had to be in sports,” she said in an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air.
“I just wanted to break free—be an individual. There’s something about team sports, classes, I didn’t take well to it. I didn’t like it… I hated team sports,” she went on. While she didn’t like the sports she was doing, they did prepare her for her more athletic roles, especially for playing Katniss Everdeen.
To play Katniss, Lawrence had to learn how to use a bow and arrow, as Katniss is a skilled huntress and archer. While there are bows made for left-handed users, Lawrence learned how to use a right-handed bow for the movies.
In preparation, Lawrence trained extensively with Khatuna Lorig, an Olympic archer with bronze, silver, and gold medals in both team and individual events. Lorig and Lawrence worked to make all of her scenes look as realistic and authentic as possible.
“It was a little hard for me, like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m working with a star.’ But she made it easy. She has a very good personality,” Lorig said of Lawrence. Lorig and other archers hoped that the movie would help in making the sport more popular and getting it more publicity.
Luckily, it wasn’t too challenging for Lawrence to get the hand of the right-handed bow, meaning that she would hold the bow with her left hand and draw the bowstring back with her right hand.
Hand dominance isn’t as much of a factor in archery, though many people believe that an archer needs to use their stronger arm to pull back the bowstring.
Eye dominance is much more of a factor, but it’s fairly easy for anyone to learn to use both a right or left-handed bow.