A college degree isn’t always necessary to succeed. Neither is a GED or high school diploma, in the case of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, who told “60 Minutes’’ she never finished middle school.

Lawrence, known for starring in “The Hunger Games’’ series, admitted in a “60 Minutes’’ interview clip released Friday that she dropped out of school when she was 14 years old.

The 27-year-old told interviewer Bill Whitakerthat she struggled in school and “never felt very smart.’’ But when she began acting, something changed.

“That was a whole part of my brain that I didn’t even know existed,’’ she said in the interview clip. “And I didn’t want to let it go.’’

Since then, she said she has forged her own path.

“I found what I wanted to do, and I didn’t want anything getting in the way of it,’’ she said. “Even friends, for many years, were not as important to me as my career.’’

For the past seven years, she has made two movies every year. She became the youngest actress ever nominated for four Academy Awards. And in 2013, she won best actress for her role in “Silver Linings Playbook.’’

Now, she’s cast as a Russian ballerina in the upcoming “Red Sparrow’’ (above). It’s a role that requires nudity, something she was initially hesitant about because she said she was devastated when she was hacked in 2014 and nude photos of her went viral online.

“I realized that there was a difference between consent and not, and I showed up for the first day and I did it and I felt empowered,’’ she said. “I feel like something that was taken from me I got back and am using in my art.’’

The interview with Lawrence will be broadcast on “60 Minutes’’ on Sunday at 7 p.m. on CBS.