Yes, Jennifer Lawrence's No Hard Feelings Is Based On A Real-Life Craigslist Ad

While the Jennifer Lawrence romantic comedy "No Hard Feelings" feels like a throwback movie inspired by the raunchy, R-rated romps of the 1980s, the idea is actually rooted in a real scenario.

Lawrence stars in "No Hard Feelings" as Maddie Barker, a struggling townie in Montauk, New York, who has her car impounded as collateral after failing to pay her property taxes on her childhood home in the swanky Long Island village. In need of a vehicle to earn money as an Uber driver and to get to her bartending job, Maddie, 32, answers an ad from Laird and Allison Becker (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti), a pair of helicopter parents who are looking for a woman to "date" their awkward 19-year-old son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), in the most intimate sense of the word. If Maddie succeeds, the Beckers will give her a car.

The idea behind the scheme — which Percy is oblivious to — is to bring the teen out of his shell and learn social skills before he heads off to college at Princeton, but the results are disastrous from the get-go. And while the wild events of the film are concocted by director-screenwriter Gene Stupnitsky and his fellow scribe John Phillips, Stupnitsky told Entertainment Weekly that the foundation of "No Hard Feelings" came from a Craigslist ad that he received from the film's producers.

"I read it, and I thought, 'This is wild. Who is the woman that answers this ad?' And I thought, 'Oh, that'll be a great role for my friend Jennifer Lawrence,'" Stupnitsky told EW.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the idea for "No Hard Feelings" came up when Gene Stupnitsky and Jennifer Lawrence were out to dinner. From there it was a waiting game, but Lawrence was thrilled with the result.

"Gene read the Craigslist ad to me, and I died laughing. I thought it was hilarious, but there wasn't a script or anything. I just thought he had a funny idea," Lawrence recalled for EW. "And then a couple years later, he handed me the funniest script I've ever read in my life." 

Before the release of "No Hard Feelings," Stupnitsky knew there were other risks, like making the comedy a theatrical release. The writer-director gained confidence in the film's long-term prospects, though, once he realized "No Hard Feelings" had a built-in nostalgia factor. "Comedies in general haven't really been made that much, especially in the theatrical space," Stupnitsky told EW. "At the time it didn't necessarily feel like we were making a throwback, but I think once people saw the trailer, that was the reaction. I was like, 'Oh, that makes sense.'"

Now that the film is finished, Lawrence certainly isn't afraid of the film being a raunchy throwback. In fact, Lawrence thinks "No Hard Feelings" will offend audiences but in an acceptable way.

Whether Lawrence makes another movie comedy after "No Hard Feelings" is yet to be seen. However, "Hunger Games" fans may be excited to know that Lawrence is open to picking up Katniss Everdeen's bow again.