Jennifer Lawrence, for Good Reason, Is Terrified to Hear Herself Sing

“I do not like singing in front of other people,” Jennifer Lawrence told David Letterman on Wednesday’s Late Show. There’s a really, really good reason for that.

Lawrence describes her singing voice as like a “tone-deaf Amy Winehouse,” which is a perfect description. As a big fan of hers, I agree: the tone she describes (and models in this clip) is also sort of like “frog trying to belt out the Liechtenstein national anthem.” If you don’t believe me, just listen to her story about the brief singing she does in Mockingjay Part 1.

Despite her wishes that the producers get Lorde to record something for her to lip-sync along to, she said producers used her actual voice for the song in the movie, but she hasn’t heard it yet: she plugged her ears when the scene came onscreen. And who wouldn’t? Seeing yourself on a giant movie screen must be trying enough; hearing yourself bleat like a baby sheep lost in the woods would be traumatic.

She told Letterman she tried singing as a child because she comes from one of those families where Mom constantly tells her kids how good they are at everything they try, like singing. As opposed to my family, where my mother just told me I was terrible at everything always and told me to go to my room and stop interrupting her episodes of Dallas. Still, all is right in the end when Lawrence and Letterman frog out a line of “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” together.