Jennifer Lawrence‘s acting origin story is, in many ways, a familiar story. A teenage girl begs her parents to take her to visit New York City, and while there, she’s discovered.

“I was in New York for spring break, and I was watching dancing in Union Square,” Lawrence said during an appearance on Good Hang with Amy Poehler. “Never seen that before, not a lot of street dancing in Louisville. And a man named Daniel, who was a talent scout, came up to me and my mom and was like, ‘Can I take her picture? I’m like a model scout.’ And we were just like, ‘Cool, okay.’ You know, no sense of danger. If he had told us to meet him in a hotel room, we 100% would have.”

But whatever happened to that photo, the Silver Linings Playbook star didn’t really think about it after she started getting auditions. So, when she saw a famous singer wearing that particular photo on his clothes, she was a little surprised.

“Joe Jonas actually wore the picture on his T-shirt at a concert one time, and it was the first time I had seen that picture since it happened,” she said, “I was like, ‘How did Joe Jonas get it?’ Weird.”

The Hunger Games actress doesn’t mention if she ever learned how Jonas got hold of the photo. However, she does mention that she’s seen it since.

“I don’t really know what to do with it,” she admitted. “I’m not going to like, print it out.”

Lawrence knew, even then at 14, that she wanted to be an actress, so she steered her modeling interviews in that direction.

“If you’re a model, you’re a model,” she told Poehler. “Like, if you’re a model, you’re traveling, you’re not acting. Like, there’s no commercials. So somewhere in those interviews, I decided that I would only sign with an agency that would also let me act.”

As a kid, Lawrence had no idea that she could make a career out of her love of pretending. Since Winter’s Bone in 2010, the 35-year-old has earned a BAFTA, an Oscar, three Golden Globes, and many other awards. However, it all began with that photo that somehow ended up on Jonas’s shirt.

This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 21, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.