Adele tried to warn Jennifer Lawrence her Chris Pratt sci-fi team-up 'Passengers' would flop

In 2016, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence were two of the biggest and most beloved movie stars in the world. Pratt was coming off the dual successes of Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, while Lawrence was celebrated for both her franchise work in The Hunger Games and X-Men and her acclaimed dramatic acting, including an Oscar win for Silver Linings Playbook. It made complete sense to pair the two of them up for a big spectacle movie. But according to Lawrence, the movie in question landed her with a warning from a fellow megastar.

In a new interview with The New York Times to promote her upcoming drama Causeway, Lawrence discussed the pitfalls of the highest heights of her fame in the mid-2010s, as she seemed to land more and more blockbuster material and began to question the kinds of films placed before her by her representation. At a certain point, she explained, Lawrence began to feel the sense of being pulled along by her own fanbase, and her fans in turn pulling her, even if no one was especially excited about the project. 

“I was like, ‘Oh no, you guys are here because I’m here, and I’m here because you’re here,'" she explained. "'Wait, who decided that this was a good movie?’”

When asked for an example of this problem, Lawrence specifically cited Passengers, director Morten Tyldum's sci-fi drama which paired her with Pratt as two souls who awaken from space hibernation too early and are left to survive alone on a luxury starship while everyone else keeps sleeping. She then went on to note that one of her friends, fellow Oscar winner and iconic recording artist Adele, tried to warn her off making that particular movie.

“Adele told me not to do it! She was like, ‘I feel like space movies are the new vampire movies.’ I should have listened to her," Lawrence said. 

Adele turned out to be right, but not in the sense that audiences were sick of space movies, necessarily. Despite the combined star power of Lawrence and Pratt, Passengers opened to a lackluster box office and less-than-stellar reviews, including major criticism leveled at the film's questionable plot choices. Two years later, Lawrence changed representation, and with the release of 2019's Dark Phoenix she both completed her run on franchise films and decided to step away for a hiatus from acting that ended with the release of Don't Look Up late last year.

“I felt like more of a celebrity than an actor,” she said, “cut off from my creativity, my imagination.”

Now she's back, and she's back on her terms. Causeway, which Lawrence also produced, premieres Friday on Apple TV+. 

Looking for more science fiction? Check out series like SYFY's Battlestar Galactica streaming now on Peacock. Looking to 2023, SYFY also has the new original series The Ark in the works.