Exclusive

How Brian Tyree Henry Broke the Ice With Causeway Co-Star Jennifer Lawrence

While Brian Tyree Henry admitted he was initially "intimidated" to meet Jennifer Lawrence, he shared how they bonded on the set of their new movie Causeway.

By Elyse Dupre Nov 29, 2022 9:15 PMTags
Watch: Brian Tyree Henry INTIMIDATED to Meet Jennifer Lawrence

How do you become friends with Jennifer Lawrence

While there's no playbook, Brian Tyree Henry recently revealed how he and the actress broke the ice on the set of their new movie Causeway.

"I think at one point we were sitting in our tent together and she was reading [Sylvia Plath's] The Bell Jar," he recalled to E! News at the 2022 Gotham Awards on Nov. 28. "And I kind of knocked it out of her hand and I was like, 'What are you doing? Why are bringing this book here?' And she's like, 'Because I wanna be deep.' I was like, 'I feel that.'"

Henry said he and Lawrence would "talk about everything" like their lives and shared experiences, which "connected us even deeper." Although, the actor admitted he was initially nervous to meet the Oscar winner.

"I was really intimated because she's such a powerhouse," he continued. "I've pretty much seen everything's she's done. And it was really cool because she started in an independent film, so to come back to such an independent film this way was like her getting back to her roots. And I was like, 'Oh my god, and they chose me to do that with.'"

photos
Jennifer Lawrence Through the Years

Over time, Henry and Lawrence's friendship became even stronger. "As we traveled through this whole movie, our friendship just grew and grew and grew," the Atlanta alum added. "And that's kind of what happened—that was the culmination of how these two characters we portray came about and it was what was happening between her and I between takes that built the chemistry of it."

Shutterstock

And they soon realized they had a lot in common, including a mutual admiration of Adele.

"The first time I met Adele was at the Gold Party for Beyoncé, and me and Adele danced together the whole night," Henry said. "She probably won't remember that, but it's a big part of my heart. Like, it was really, really a great time."

In their new movie Causeway, Henry portrays a mechanic named James while Lawrence portrays a U.S. solider named Lynsey who is struggling to readjust to her life in New Orleans after suffering a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan. As Apple TV+ notes, the "two unlikely strangers find solace in newfound friendship as they navigate their journey from grief to healing."

"It's really easy to get certain scripts that are kind of inundated with this is what the conflict is, this is what the climax is, a lot of exposition," Henry told E! News. "But this script was really simple in that it was really about the human connection, about these characters trying to connect on a human level through grief, and guilt and loss. And there was also a stillness about it that I really wanted to explore—the things that were unspoken or unsaid. And with the direction of Lila [Neugebauer], we were able to capture that."

Causeway is available to stream on Apple TV+ now.

Latest News