Jennifer Lawrence drinks Stephen Colbert's rum, talks about her year off from acting, spycraft

Stephen Colbert and Jennifer Lawrence share a drink

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

published 27 February 2018

By the time Stephen Colbert asked guest Jennifer Lawrence about her upcoming yearlong break from acting on Monday's Late Show, they had already done one shot of rum. "So you're taking a year off. Why?" Colbert asked. "Because I'm so miserable — no, I'm just kidding," Lawrence said. "I'm still developing things, I'm not going to be on set. It's not like a big, dramatic — oh, God, here we go." That was Colbert pouring a second glass.

"I'm going to be developing things and talking to kids about, you know, corruption," Lawrence said, and it was Colbert's turn to sit up: "Wait, what?" "I'm part of an organization that's trying to pass state-by-state legislation to get big money out of politics," Lawrence said. "So I go to this high school to talk to kids about, you know, the government and super PACs and blah blah blah." After "Trump got elected, my head spun off," she continued, and she threw herself into learning about civics, but she was stumped by her first question at the Ohio high school. "They were so smart, and I was like, 'Well, I can't go to colleges anymore,'" Lawrence joked. "I'm going to start getting toddlers into politics. Starting at a real grassroots level."

Then both of their shoes came off and the conversation got loose, touching on the "horrible ass boil" Harvey Weinstein, going to Amy Schumer's wedding, and Lawrence's apparently unrequited crush on Larry David.

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In the second part of the interview, Colbert brought up Lawrence's new film, Red Sparrow, and Lawrence disinvited all her "haters" from seeing it. They discussed what she learned from making the Russian spy thriller — ballet and how spies tell their kids they are spies — and Lawrence talked about the adorable evasive maneuvers her nieces and nephews take to protect her from stalkers when she returns to Kentucky for the holidays. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.