( RollingStone.com ) -- Jennifer Lawrence , the 20-year-old Oscar nominee for Best Actress , is sitting in a fancy Manhattan hotel sipping tea and feeling a little out of place . See , she grew up in Louisville , Kentucky , where her dad owned a construction company and her mom ran a summer camp . They had land and horses . She loved to fish . She was a total tomboy : field hockey , softball , basketball on an all-boys team . ( `` I was so dykey . '' ) One of her nicknames was Nitro . She lives in Los Angeles now , but `` little redneck things still come out . '' Like what ? `` I 'm attracted to my brother . Stuff like that . '' 10 Best Movies of 2010 . At 14 , she decided she wanted to be an actress and dragged her mom to New York for auditions . The people at Reese 's Peanut Butter Cups told her she was the best they 'd ever seen . Her mom told her they were lying . ( Her mom did n't like showbiz much . ) She auditioned for the role of Bella in `` Twilight , '' which would have been perfect if Bella were a badass , but since she 's a frightened waif , Lawrence ended up not getting the part . Which was for the best because the role she did get was for `` Winter 's Bone , '' in which she 's fantastic : harrowing and tender as the 17-year-old daughter of an Ozarks meth-cooker who 's fighting to take care of her little brother and sister . This article appears in the February 17 , 2011 issue of Rolling Stone . The issue is available now on newsstands and will appear in the online archive February 4 . To prep for the part , Lawrence learned how to shoot a gun and field-dress squirrels . She already knew how to chop wood : `` I went through a wood-chopping phase when I was nine or 10 . '' She says she has n't even bothered preparing an Oscar speech : `` I have been practicing my losing face , though . Do you want to see it ? '' ( For the record , it 's a very good losing face . ) Peter Travers Reviews 'Winter 's Bone ' Later this year comes `` X-Men : First Class , '' where she 'll play the mutant Mystique , blue-skinned and topless . ( `` Did I feel naked being naked ? '' she asks , so you do n't have to . `` Yeah . Totally . '' ) But before that there 's Jodie Foster 's `` The Beaver , '' premiering in May , in which she appears alongside a certifiable Mel Gibson . Which means she has some crazy Mel Gibson stories , right ? She leans in close . `` If I say , 'Off the record ' -- that means you ca n't print it , right ? ' `` Right . `` OK . So , off the record ... '' She 's learning . Photos : 2011 Screen Actors Guild Award Winners . Copyright © 2011 Rolling Stone .
She plays the 17-year-old daughter of an Ozarks meth-cooker in `` Winter 's Bone '' She grew up in Louisville , Kentucky , where her dad owned a construction company . Her mother was a drug addict and she had to raise herself on her own after his death.