We sat down with Jennifer Lawrence ahead of the release of her new film, Joy, which sees the Academy Award-winner re-teaming with her Silver Linings Playbook/American Hustle collaborators, Bradley Cooper and director David O. Russell.

The film is based on the true story of Joy Mangano, the inventor of the self-wringing Miracle Mop, and sweeps through four decades in Mangano's life as she goes from a little girl with big ideas to running a multi-million dollar empire (of course, not without some criminal shake-downs and betrayal along the way).

An unusual element of the story – at least by Hollywood standards – is Joy's lack of reliance on a man, using her own guts and belief in herself to thrust herself to new heights of success. "It was a conversation," Lawrence says, in working with Russell to uncover Joy's ultimate journey in the film. "I think audiences like seeing Bradley [Cooper] and I that way, but it wasn't part of her journey. It wasn't part of the importance of her. She didn't need that."

Asked what she, Lawrence, would invent if incentivized by QVC: Something to help her find the remote control.

Below, we chat with J.Law about the film – and whether or not she has more singing in her future.

Joy opens nationwide on December 25.