Lawrence a 'messy and chaotic' character

It's a beloved rom-com trope: An irresponsible, irreverent and seemingly irredeemable man falls in love with a woman, setting him on the path to finally get his act together.

But in "No Hard Feelings," which hit theaters on June 23, director Gene Stupnitsky sought to subvert those gendered expectations, with Jennifer Lawrence instead playing his dirtbag protagonist.

"We always described her as someone who cuts corners, who is lazy, doesn't have great nutrition, likes to smoke pot and drink and doesn't take anything too seriously," he said of the character he and co-writer, John Phillips, created. "A guy doing it, that is well-trodden territory. It's not very interesting."

"No Hard Feelings" follows Lawrence's Maddie as she conspires with the parents of an awkward 19-year-old (Andrew Barth Feldman) to have sex with him before he leaves for college in exchange for a car. He's left in the dark about the scheme, leaving Maddie to try to seduce the shy brainiac more than a decade her junior.

Lawrence said the "messy and chaotic" character's appeal were one of the things that drew her to the film. "She was just so determined and there was no way to really stop her from achieving what she was going to achieve."

The film is based on an actual Craigslist post the producers stumbled upon years ago. In the film a similar message becomes the catalyst for Maddie - desperate to continue working as a Uber driver as a last-ditch effort to keep the house her late mother left her - to respond.

Stupnitsky said the post, in addition to being very funny, was ripe for exploring a host of timely topics.

"Helicopter parents are a real thing. And I think sex workers were in the news a lot. And just all these ideas were coming together, you...