Jennifer Lawrence: inspiration to many. For one, “Star Trek Beyond” co-writer and star Simon Pegg, who revealed in a press conference Thursday that the new character Jaylah, was inspired by Lawrence in the film “Winter’s Bone.”
“We were trying to create this very independent character. But we didn’t have a name for it,” Pegg said. “So we just called it ‘Jennifer-Lawrence-In-Winter’s-Bone.’”
“That’s a long name,” the writer and actor joked. “So it started getting tiring always saying, well Jennifer-Lawrence-In-Winter’s-Bone is fighting here. So then we started calling her J-Law. And then she became Jaylah.”
In the film, Jaylah is played by Sofia Boutella. Pegg said in the same press conference that she is a welcome addition to the “Star Trek” crew.
“We love Sofia, she’s a nutcase and a golden edition to this group,” he said. “There are not a lot of girls in Star Trek. Zoe [Saldana as Uhura] has a lot on her shoulders.”
Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Saldana return for “Star Trek Beyond,” directed by Justin Lin.
Earlier this month it was revealed that John Cho’s character, Sulu, would be the film franchise’s first openly gay character. Pegg and Lin made the decision as a nod to George Takei, who played Sulu in “Star Trek: The Original Series.”
Variety critic Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review that Lin “brings his bravura action energy and a certain nostalgic flair” to the film, although he, “unboldly goes where too many have gone before.”
