As the Winter’s Bone DVD and Blu-ray went out this week, rising star Jennifer Lawrence hit Los Angeles to accept a New Hollywood award at the Hollywood Film Fest, on a brief break from her role as Mystique (originated by Rebecca Romijn) in X-Men: First Class. While she does undergo a six-to-eight hour process each time she gets coated with blue paint and scales (which are hard to remove, she shows me in our flip cam interview), she confesses that 90% of the time, she’s fully clothed.

Mostly, though, we talked about Winter’s Bone, for which she is getting considerable Oscar buzz. (The Palm Springs Film Fest is giving her their rising star award.) Director Debra Granik (interview below) says she cast Lawrence because she had the country accent nailed, and seemed willing, through several grueling auditions, to go the extra mile. That included flying herself out to audition.

When I first saw the movie back in January at Sundance, Lawrence’s performance hit me hard. She’s tough yet vulnerable, frightened but determined to find the truth about her missing father, do what she has to do to protect and care for her family. She’s just a hick 17-year-old: admirable and believable. She hikes miles acorss the cold countryside, chops wood, shoots, skins and cooks game, gets beat up as if she were a guy. In short, she’s more hero than heroine. In the flesh, Lawrence is a slim 20-year-old in spike heels with some Kentucky grit behind her pretty features (and blue paint behind her ears). She’s confident, determined, not too eager to smile or to please. Will the high school drop-out who was discovered in New York by a photographer ever slow down and get herself an education? “Never say never,” she says.

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When MTV News caught up with the rising star at the Hollywood Awards Gala, she revealed that she received juicy insider info on her character, Mystique, straight from the original source: Rebecca Romijn.

“I got lots of juicy stories and gossip from the old set, that was much better [than advice],” Lawrence said. “I think the first thing I asked her was, ‘What should I be for Halloween?’ and she looked at me and started laughing. ‘Right, I was supposed to ask you something else.’”

“There are no [makeup] tips,” she said of the process of becoming the blue-skinned mutant. “You just have to grin and bare it.”

Endless hours of makeup application aside, Lawrence said she’s having a blast filming with her fellow mutants (James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, January Jones as Emma Frost, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Caleb Landry Jones as Sean “Banshee” Cassidy).

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“It’s so fun. We’re all in London and we went to Paris a few weekends ago, all of us, we’re having a blast filming it,” she said.

With regard to her character, and Mystique’s backstory, Lawrence said that her definitive arc is what struck her most about the role.

“My favorite thing that I saw in the script is that she has a very distinct beginning, middle and end,” she said. “I love that in any story. She goes through something and comes out on the other side. It’s weird to say about a shape-shifter, but she really morphs.”

But is Lawrence’s Mystique all sugar and no spice?

“Yes,” she insisted. “I play a good girl. At first.”

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Here’s a video of Jennifer and the director of Winter’s Bone interview for the movie.

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