The Real Person Behind Jennifer Lawrence’s Joy Is A Genius Inventor

Jennifer Lawrence will be playing the title character in David O. Russell’s Joy, out on Christmas. But the real person behind the story is perhaps more remarkable than Lawrence’s portrayal. A new Vogue article meets the real Joy Mangano and finds her ensconced in a major Long Island mansion. Magnano lives in Swan Manor, which she purchased with the proceeds from more-than-$3 billion in sales of her inventions, including $1 billion on HSN. Mangano, despite her massive success, still sells products on HSN. She’ll often go on air at midnight and sell $1 million worth of product. All indications are that she loves what she does: “I get chills thinking about it,” she tells Vogue. Mangano loved every part of the filmmaking process, but especially how Lawrence played her: “I’m convinced she was a Macbeth actress in the 1800s,” Mangano tells Vogue. “Some of the things she comes out with, you think she’s… this grande dame at 80 years old. She is an amazingly bright and talented young lady and a very funny and good soul.” The movie will bring new publicity, and Mangano fully plans to capitalize on that by introducing a 25th anniversary edition of the Miracle Mop. She also says becoming an inventor was much harder when she started out: “For me personally, there was no path,” she tells Vogue. “A mom and a woman way back then, to sit at a coffee table and say, ‘Yeah, I’m an inventor’? It was like, ‘Okay. She needs to go to therapy.’ ”