Charlotte Lawrence has caught the acting bug. You could say it was inevitable. After all, the L.A. native was your typical theater kid performing in all of her school and camp plays growing up. But hell-bent on forging her own path at 13—anything to avoid following in her famous parents’ film and TV footsteps—she dove headfirst into music and has been amassing a notable following for her alt-indie sound and emotionally raw songwriting ever since.
Then Bad Monkey came along.
When Lawrence caught wind that actresses her age and who looked like her were auditioning for a show that her dad, Bill Lawrence, was writing for Apple TV+, her ego suddenly kicked in. “I was like, ‘What the fuck are all these girls auditioning for that I don’t know about it?'” she recalls via a FaceTime call in late July. At the behest of her roommate and longtime friend, who also was her dad’s former assistant, she hatched a plan to secretly audition. Lawrence got straight to work. She hired an acting coach and put in the hours until she was finally ready to put herself on tape. Then they slipped it in with the others.
“I got a call three weeks later, and my dad was like, ‘What the fuck, Charlotte?'” she says with a laugh. Much to her dad’s surprise, Lawrence’s face popped up on-screen while he was reviewing top candidates for the role of Caitlin. “He sat me down and was like, ‘Do you actually want to do this?’ I told him, ‘I want to do this more than I’ve ever wanted to do anything. I feel so inspired by it. The character resonates so much with me. I really think I could kill it, and if you would give me this opportunity, I will work tooth and nail and as hard as I possibly can and go into classes every week and work with a coach and just kill it for you,'” she says. Even then, she still had to win over the higher-ups at Apple, which she did. She also needed the approval of her father after he warned her he would cut her out of the show if she wasn’t great. She did that too.
The 24-year-old tells us all of this because she knows her path to acting is deeply rooted in nepotism, a fact she refreshingly doesn’t shy away from during our conversation. Instead, she uses it as a motivator to work even harder.
Not one to cut corners, Lawrence put in the work she promised to her father. She immediately enrolled in classes and went through exercise after exercise with her acting coach Anthony Meindl. Being vulnerable and expressing her true emotions on the page is something Lawrence knows well, but expressing and feeling those emotions out loud? That was a different story. “One of the biggest things about acting, at least for me, is don’t be afraid to be embarrassed,” Lawrence says. “Once I got past that part, I felt more comfortable to be able to be wild and be free.”
Coaching aside, being on the set of Bad Monkey with its great ensemble cast—Vince Vaughn, Rob Delaney, Michelle Monaghan, and Meredith Hagner, to name a few—was a master class for Lawrence in itself. She was surrounded by people who could be as boisterous, hilarious, and devastating as they wanted to be with no fear.
The dark comedy follows former detective Andrew Yancy (Vaughn), who becomes obsessed with an unusual new murder case that could reinstate him to the department, but first, he must get past a series of oddball characters in the Florida Keys.
Lawrence plays Caitlin, a recovering heroin addict and newfound Jesus enthusiast looking to reconnect with her father despite his new money-hungry wife creating obstacles.
“I remember reading the book and just wanting to know Caitlin and being so interested in her,” Lawrence tells us. “I thought she was such a cool character and so intricate and funny and special.” Though she couldn’t necessarily relate to Caitlin’s chosen vices, Lawrence understood Caitlin’s desire to change her life around and saw a little girl who is just trying to be a grown-up. She also loved that Caitlin wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. “I find myself thinking a lot of things that Caitlin has said out loud but would never ever say out loud,” Lawrence admits. “It was really fun reading the script and being like, ‘I get to be a bitch and say all these things that are so confident and cool that I’ll never do, but I can express it through her.’ It was really fun.”
As for the opportunity to go toe to toe in bitchiness with Hagner, who has many scene-stealing moments as Caitlin’s stepmom Eve Stripling, Lawrence says those were some of her favorite days on set. The actress has been a fan of Hagner since watching her in Search Party and can wax poetic about her co-star for hours. “She’s first and foremost the kindest person. She is so lovely and so caring and nurturing and appreciative and complimentary—all the good things. She has all the good fucking traits. It’s honestly annoying. I’m like, ‘You can’t be this funny and talented and beautiful and also be fucking great in every way.'”
The two became very close while filming in Miami and spent most of their days off hanging at the beach with Hagner’s son and husband. Lawrence describes their relationship as a sisterly dynamic, which was all the more fun when doing intense scenes together. “We would do an emotional ‘fuck you!’ take, and then they say cut, and immediately, it’s like, ‘Oh, remember when I was telling you about last night?’ and go into gossip,” she says.
New to the world of acting, Lawrence was a sponge watching Hagner at work, soaking up how she took direction and the confident choices she would make with every line. She quite literally felt like a better actor just standing next to Hagner.
Then there was working opposite Vaughn, with whom Lawrence shares most of her scenes. She describes the little things the legendary comedy actor did while filming that left a lasting impact on her, like arriving early to set to go through scenes together in hair and makeup or discreetly feeding her one-liners between takes and giving her all the credit for them. “He didn’t need to do that, and I know it’s such a little thing. He probably wouldn’t think about it again, but that was so special,” she says.
Once filming on Bad Monkey wrapped and Lawrence got a taste of set life, she was hooked. Upon arriving home, she went straight into more acting classes and has been going out for more self-tapes. She admits she still has a lot to learn and probably always will. It’s the same with music. For now, though, she’s doing anything and everything she can to better herself.
Her dream? To one day do a project that isn’t connected to her father, which she realizes is a big statement. “With my connections and who my father is, I’ll always have a bigger foot in the door than a lot of other people, always have more advantages, always have more opportunities, and I completely recognize that,” she says. “I just would love to do something that is because of me, myself, and I, and I didn’t have to skip anything.”
TV and film may be Lawrence’s next big act, but music will always be her first love, and fans can rest easy knowing more music is on the way. The album is finished. Now, she’s just in the tedious creative and marketing process. She lights up talking about the collection of songs, saying it’s the most proud she’s felt of anything in her life.
It’s exciting to be connecting with Lawrence at a moment when seemingly all of her dreams are coming true. She is more laser focused on her career than ever before, and it’s showing up in her work. “Whatever the world has for me, I’m open to it,” she says. We’ll certainly be watching.
Bad Monkey is now streaming on Apple TV+.
Photographer: Louisa Meng
Stylist: Lauren Eggertsen
Hairstylist: Graham Nation
Makeup Artist: Jen Tioseco
Manicurist: Kimmie Kyees
Creative Director: Amy Armani
Producer: Lindsay Ferro
Designer: Ally Quirk
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