It’s the kind of thing all little girls dream about. Well, little girls who want to be famous actresses, anyway. Yes, they dream about walking red carpets and signing autographs and returning to their schools to shame the kids who were mean to them. They dream of big mansions and trips to Europe on a boat and probably kissing a handsome hunk. But what little girls who want to become a famous actresses dream about most is getting a lot of strange compliments from Donald Sutherland.
You’ve all seen it, I’m sure. A niece or a friend’s kid who has, next to her Taylor Swift and Louis Tomlinson posters, a huge framed portrait of Donald Sutherland hanging proudly on her wall. Little girls, especially those interested in show business, simply revere Donald Sutherland.
Which is why it must have been so amazing for Jennifer Lawrence, star of the Hunger Games movies, to hear the amazing things that her Hunger Games co-star, who is none other than Donald Sutherland, said about her recently. He said the following:
“When I worked with her, I realized the child was a genius. She’s the right person at the right time in the sense of Joan of Arc or Jesus Christ, any genius, in that sense.”
Imagine that. Imagine as a young actor hearing Donald Sutherland call you Jesus Christ and Joan of Arc. I mean, it would be the realization of a lifelong dream, I would think. Finally. After all that time spent worshipping at the altar of Donald Sutherland, watching Klute and MASH and Robert A. Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters over and over and over again, saving up allowance money to travel to Europe to watch Season 2 of Crossing Lines. After all that, to finally get word that Donald Sutherland has singled you out as the second coming of Joan of Arc and/or Jesus Christ, well boy. That’s just it. That’s about all there is, isn’t there.
And I don’t mean to be gendered about this. Plenty of boys would be thrilled if Donald Sutherland, star of Buster’s Bedroom, said similar things about them. But boys mostly are interested in courting the approval of Ellen Burstyn. That’s just how these things work.
Anyway, congratulations to Jennifer Lawrence for achieving so many people’s dream. All those years of praying and wishing and hoping, they all were worth something. Now, if she can just get Dabney Coleman to call her a “hell of a gal,” she’ll be ready to retire.
