Released in North America during Christmas 2015, Joy directed by David O. Russell is aiming for this year’s film awards season. 

Telling the story of single mother Joy Mangano’s ups and downs before becoming a successful businesswoman.

The film helped Jennifer Lawrence win the Best Actress – Comedy or Musical award at the 2016 Golden Globes, as well as her fourth Oscar nomination.

HistoryvsHollywood makes many interesting comparisons between Joy Mangano’s real-life events and the developments in Joy .

Joy Mangano actually invented the self-wringing Miracle Mop, and this was her first success. The product was not directly mentioned in Joy , but only appeared on TV in one scene.

In fact, Joy Mangano holds over 100 patents for her own inventions. She is the founder and president of Ingenious Designs, LLC. 

As of 2010, her inventions brought in approximately $150 million for the company through the HSN shopping channel.

During initial phone conversations with the real-life Joy Mangano, director David O. Russell was upfront about the fact that the film Joy would not be a biopic, but rather “half-fiction.” The character agreed and was credited as an executive producer on Joy , although Mangano’s last name does not appear in the film.

It was not until the work was nearly completed that O. Russell and Mangano met in person, as the director explained: “I was in no hurry, because I wanted to make what I wanted first.”

Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Joy Mangano in the film, told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show that she didn’t want to meet the character because it would be an obstacle to portraying a real person. However, the star added: “The craziest details in the story are true.”

The character created the first Miracle Mop model at the age of 34 in 1990. That was also the year Jennifer Lawrence was born.

Yes. But like the story in the movie, Joy Mangano’s own appearance on QVC to promote the Miracle Mop saved the product. Less than a decade later, the self-wringing mop alone was generating $10 million in annual sales. In the meantime, Joy Mangano continued to launch other notable products.

Terry, Joy Mangano’s eccentric mother, is played by Virginia Madsen in the film. However, she is a composite of many of her family members.

That’s right. When Mangano was a young girl working at a veterinary hospital, she created a reflective collar so that drivers could see animals at night. A year later, Hartz Mountain brought a similar product to market.

Like the movie, Mangano was born in New York and grew up in Huntington, Long Island, where the movie takes place, but was actually filmed in Boston and other Massachusetts towns.

In fact, Mangano graduated from Pace University with a degree in business administration in 1978. She started working after her divorce.

In the film, Peggy is ambitious and always tries to embarrass Joy in front of others. But the older sister is a completely fictional character created by writer and director David O. Russell.

In the film, Bradley Cooper plays Neil Walker, a senior manager at the home shopping channel QVC. The character is a combination of QVC founder Joseph Segel and several members of the company.

In real life, at the time Mangano created the Miracle Mop, she was divorced and raising three children: Robert, Jacqueline, and Christie Miranne.

After her divorce from Tony Miranne in 1989, Joy Mangano lived with her three children in a two-bedroom ranch house in Smithtown, Long Island. To make ends meet, she worked as a waitress and an airline reservations manager. It was during this time that she came up with the idea for Miracle Mop.

In fact, her ex-husband Tony Miranne (Édgar Ramírez) was a classmate of Mangano’s at Pace University, not a singer.

In the film, this best friend is named Jackie, after Mangano’s real-life, uncredited youngest child. The businesswoman’s real-life friend Ronnie did indeed call into the QVC shopping show during her first on-air appearance.

In real life, it was 1992 and Mangano actually sold 18,000 units in less than half an hour, proving that she had the power to connect with buyers.

Tony Miranne is now one of Joy Mangano’s closest friends, even serving as vice president of her company Ingenious Designs. Mangano himself says he’s “a talented businessman,” and his position as vice president allows him to stay close to their children (two of whom also work for the company).

It’s true. At the end of the film, Joy Mangano leaves QVC for HSN when the retail empire acquires her company Ingenious Designs LLC in 1999. As implied in the film, Joy Mangano finds great success at HSN, regularly breaking the million-dollar mark in sales every hour. Another of her inventions, Huggable Hangers, would go on to become the best-selling product in HSN history.

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Source: Tampa Bay Times