No Hard Feelings is making a splash in its streaming debut.
The raunchy R-rated comedy, which stars Jennifer Lawrence, was released on Netflix on Oct. 22. Days after hitting the streaming service, the film ranks No. 3 on the platform’s list of top 10 films in the U.S., according to Netflix data. It also is seeing massive global reach, ranking seven on Netflix’s Global Top 10 list of most-watched films, with 3.8M views and 6.6M of hours viewed.
The film made its theatrical debut on June 23, where it made $15 million at the box office in its opening weekend, Variety reported. It ended its theatrical run earning $50.5 million domestically and $87.1 million worldwide.
The film marked Lawrence’s first lead role in a comedy, and her first role on the big screen since taking a 2-year break from acting.
So, should you stream No Hard Feelings? If you missed it in theaters, here’s what you need to know.
What’s No Hard Feelings about?
Lawrence plays Maddie, a 32-year-old Uber driver and bartender who’s struggling to live in Montauk, N.Y. amid gentrification.
In the film, “Maddie answers a Craigslist ad from a rich couple looking to hire a woman to give their 19-year-old son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), more ‘experience’ dating before he goes off to Princeton,” according to IndieWire. She answers the call, and hijinks ensue.
The idea for the movie is actually based on a real Craigslist ad, inspiring co-writer and director Gene Stupnitsky to create the project.
“I read [the ad], 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 Entertainment Weekly.
Lawrence called script ‘the funniest thing’
While Stupinsky had showed her the Craiglist ad over dinner, Lawrence said she didn’t expect to be in the film.
“About four years ago — the director’s a good friend of mine, we’ve been friends for a long time. And we were getting dinner, and he showed me the Craigslist ad,” she said. “And I just thought it was hilarious, but I, in no way, thought I was gonna, like, be in the movie or that — there was no movie. It was just the ad, and we laughed about it. And then four years later, he sent me the script.”
She later told George Stephanopoulos in a June interview with Good Morning America, “I had just had a baby, so I definitely wasn’t planning on working.” Lawrence welcomed her son, Cy, with husband Cooke Maroney, in Feb. 2022. “And I just, I read the script, and it was just too funny. It was the funniest thing I had ever read.”
Lawrence’s co-star left Harvard to film the movie
Andrew Barth Feldman spent a semester at Harvard University in fall 2021 studying theater, USA Today reported. The 21-year-old took a break to play Percy in No Hard Feelings.
“We just wouldn’t have made the movie if we couldn’t find the right Percy. We auditioned some great actors and it was just immediate,” Lawrence told Stephanopolous. “I was really worried that my 20-year-old co-star was going to annoy me … and within minutes, he is so smart and cool and dialed. He put off going to Harvard to do this movie. Very Percy-like.”
“Jen called me to tell me that I had gotten the job and said, ‘I’m so sorry, Andrew. You’re not going be able to go back to Harvard this semester.’ This was the opportunity of a lifetime. I had to. And Harvard was also like ‘Yeah, you have to go do it.’ It was a dream come true,” Feldman told Reuters.
About that NSFW nude beach scene…
Maddie takes Percy to the beach and suggests they go skinny dipping. Suddenly, a group of young beachgoers attempt to steal their clothes and Maddie storms towards them in the buff to confront them. A wild skirmish takes place with her taking on all three culprits in a brawl with Hall & Oates’s “Maneater” soundtracking the chaos.
“That was the most exercise I’ve had in a really long time,” Lawrence joked.
The actress felt no hesitation filming the scene.
“Everyone in my life and my team is doing the right thing and going, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure?'” she told Variety. “I didn’t even have a second thought. It was hilarious to me.”
“Every situation that these characters end up in, you’re laughing your butt off,” said Feldman. “We became so close instantly that nothing ever felt weird or unsafe. It was entirely professional.”
Lawrence, for her part, is a fan of “cringe humor.”
“I do like the idea of comedy that makes people uncomfortable,” Lawrence told Entertainment Weekly. “I love when people are watching through their hands, through their fingers. Nothing makes me happier.”
The double standard debate
When the first trailer for the film dropped, there was debate over the age gap at the center of the plot. Some felt a woman in her 30s attempting to seduce a 19-year-old was problematic.
“The 13-year age gap between the two lead characters has led to accusations that it glorifies grooming. Not to mention that Percy spends much of the film rebuffing Maddie’s attempts to seduce him and appearing incredibly uncomfortable in the face of her skinny-dipping and lap-dancing,” a Vogue opinion piece read. “Yes, it’s meant to be funny, and no, not many 19-year-old lads would rebuff Jennifer Lawrence, but the entire premise of the film is built around a timid young man being cajoled into ‘manning up’ by having sex, which he clearly doesn’t want to do.”
Stupnitsky defended the film against the creepiness criticism.
“If you feel that way when you come out of the movie, I would be surprised,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “We took great pains to be careful about the ick factor because it could go that way…We took a humanist approach and I think that’s all you can ask for.”
