IF a Hollywood publicist were to make a list of conversational taboos for a young star, it might include the following: personal shortcomings, money, group sex and death. All of these were subjects that the actress Jennifer Lawrence breezed right into over breakfast recently. It was like a Louis C. K. bit in a much comelier frame.

?The whole time we were like orgy, orgy, who?s going to see the orgy, what are we going to do in the event of an orgy, we need to break up so we can be assured that one of us gets to see the orgy,? she said of a family outing to ?Sleep No More,? the interactive, often racy take on ?Macbeth? playing in Chelsea. (They saw no orgies, which the Lawrence clan considered a bummer.)

Ms. Lawrence, 22, has also been thinking about her own demise. Her lawyers are having her draft a will because, she explained, ?I?m rich now.? Not that you?d know it; in the next breath she called herself a redneck and described going to Walmart to shop for Rob Schneider movies. ?I like making movies, but that doesn?t mean I want to watch a black-and-white, freaking boring? ? here she amped up the sarcasm with an unprintable word ? ?silent movie,? she said.

Her on-screen characters are often marked by their flinty resolution, not their volubility, but in person Ms. Lawrence is just the opposite, an unfiltered sass who happens to look like a 1970s California prom queen and talk like a SoCal skater boy. In just two years she has made an unusual leap, from indie character actress to action heroine, nimbly repeating the cycle while retaining her real-girl charm.

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