David O. Russell and Jennifer Lawrence on why they work

At the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell, friends and frequent contributors, sat down to chat for an hour as part of the Director series. The long-time friends, who made American Hustle, silver game book, and Joy together, they talked about their unique creative relationship, including how they met for the first time, what Russell finds so captivating about Lawrence as an actor, hidden stories and when he made her cry Anna Karenina. Below are the highlights of the conversation.

Russell and Lawrence met for the first time at an AFI lunch, while Lawrence had just come out of The bone of winter. "It's a lot of fun," laughed Lawrence at lunch. "Why is it fun?" Russell asked. "I'm kidding," impbadive Lawrence.

Russell recounted seeing Lawrence from afar, a glamorous woman dressed in a white dress that "reminded me of Audrey Hepburn." "She was talking – can I say that?" Asked Russell . "Yeah," said Lawrence laughing. "Darren Aronofsky, on the parking lot," concluded Russell. Lawrence shrugged: "I guess I've been networking a lot at this lunch!"

Russell explained that when he met for the first time a 20-year-old Lawrence to discuss the role of Silver liningshe had a "very pure quality" and she told him shortly after she "felt like a ship" for her job. "What did you mean when you said that?" He asked her.

"I was so young and inexperienced. By the time I arrived at you, you've trained me. Watching our movies, everything I learned, I took throughout my career. I was so surprised by you, and have just opened. You wrote it and I sit there and you tell me how to do it better. I do not know how to explain the boat! She laughed.

"You presented yourself as a raw talent without neurosis or self-awareness," said Russell. "She was completely fearless. She came on stage like a weather system and left us, Bob De Niro and Jacki Weaver as, "Wow." She has some energy that has not been in the movies for a while. Young and old and loose and powerful and focused. You enter the movie in 20 minutes and you support it. I remember feeling that when we shot your introduction, we were aware that we were introducing a new talent and new energy that seemed very special. It was like "Who is this person?" You owned this space. "

"This is how wise she is," said Russell. "We are filming one night and she walks around reading Anna Karenina. She did not go to college. she is self-taught, like Jack Nicholson. [Jennifer]do you remember what happened?

"Yes!" Said Lawrence. "You said, did you get to the party where she still jumps in front of a train?" I was devastated. I did not go to school, I did not know anything about it.

"I said," Oh, no, no, I was joking. "Russell laughed. "It looked like you were on the train. I am sorry."

"I was like, three pages away," Lawrence said.

"She had a completely emotional reaction," Russell added. "It's her connection to art: she said," That's right, that's right, is not it? She added, "Surely, Vronsky is coming back. He will surely come back. And she began to cry. She was so invested in history. She was emotionally devastated. She was neither cynical nor ironic nor sly. She was sincere. She is an extremely sincere and funny person. For me, it was very beautiful that you had this reaction.

At one point, Russell marked the impressive dialogue scene where Lawrence discusses with De Niro how she brings "good juju" to the Eagles. Later, Lawrence admitted that she was barely prepared for the moment.

"There is something about the packaging [a day at work] where I think I'll never go back to work, "she laughed. "I just want to say," I'm going home and watching TV! So, I did not read my lines [the night before] and it was this scene. I remember that I went there and did it and could not do it after that. We only had one.

"I remember doing a lot of times," Russell said.

"I guess my insecurities have brought back real memories," said Lawrence.

Russell told the audience that Lawrence was the last person to join the group. shove and Silver lining.

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Lawrence asked.

"In the first case, we thought you were too young and there were other people on the verge of landing the role," admitted Russell.

"Wow, ok!" Rit Lawrence

"You changed the game," he said. "Like a pbad that covers 90 meters."

For shovethe tables were turned. "Jennifer was technically unavailable, busy doing all her franchises and it was her vacation," Russell said. "I said," I feel that I would be careless as a friend if I did not give you one last chance to say no to this role. "Can I say what you said? You said," Will I have big hair and long nails and be crazy? OK I'll do it. "

"I was reading the script with my thick nails and thinking about it," laughed Lawrence. "Young filmmakers, that's all you have to do. Give me big hair and long nails. "

Russell told the audience that he had killed Lawrence's Roslyn by the end of the film. "Initially, she was supposed to hang herself. But I thought, "She's too alive! She's so funny. 'I rewrote the scene the day we did it. I said, "That's what we're going to do. This is how the scenes will unfold. "We made a transcript and you did it."

The scene eventually turned to a heated argument between Lawrence and her husband on the screen, Christian Bale, and ended by Roslyn, suggesting that the two are getting divorced. "It was the only way to get rid of Roslyn," Lawrence said. "We did not need to kill her. It was just his idea.

Russell reminded Lawrence that she had met for the first time her long-time friend and co-starring Bradley Cooper in dance rehearsals prior to filming the culminating scene of the film.

"It's a hell of a way to get to know someone," Lawrence laughed. "It was really good for our chemistry. Not good for my dance – I'm such a bad dancer! We did it for six weeks. Bradley probably did it for three years, but it did not take me six.

"The dance went exactly as I had hoped," Russell said. "You are not supposed to be professional dancers."

Lawrence added that she "wished not to forget" the dance steps. "It would be so cool to release that. One day we were bored on the set of Serena so we did it. Only. Nobody saw. "