Jennifer Lawrence has been laying low lately — she just ended a major press tour for X-Men Apocalypse, so can you blame her for wanting to stay out of the spotlight? But the actress's impact can still be felt in movies she didn't even star in...yes, really. (That's some major star power.)
According to Vox, the new character in Star Trek Beyond — Jaylah, played by Sofia Boutella — was inspired by Jennifer's character in the Oscar-nominated movie, Winter's Bone. And yes, Jaylah's name is no accident. But we'll get to that in a second.
The site reports that Jaylah:
(Not only does this reflect Jennifer's character in Winter's Bone, but it's highly reminiscent of the loner Mystique Jennifer played in Apocalypse and the other X-Men films. It's unlikely Simon Pegg or his co-writer Doug Jung knew about the Apocalypse tie-in as they were writing Beyond, so that's more of a coincidence. (The former was only just released in May, so they'd have to be pretty psychic to figure that out.) But as they were writing this new character, they began calling her “Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone,” a name that wouldn't quite fly in the alternate reality that gave us Captain Kirk and Spock, so Pegg says they "started calling her J. Law, and that became Jaylah.”
Related: Jennifer Lawrence Spent Time in "a Tiny Little Jail" on Her Way to Her X-Men Audition
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