STAR POWER
JENNIFER LAWRENCE T
his month, we got to talk to breakout star Jennifer Lawrence about her role in this month’s highly anticipated The Hunger Games, a sci-fi action thriller based on the popular novel by Suzanne Collins. In the futuristic movie (also co-written by Collins), Jennifer’s character Katniss must fight to the death in an annual televised battle that takes reality TV competition to life-or-death levels. In this interview, the 21-year-old Kentucky native had some interesting thoughts on luck, action scenes, and life after fame. Despite making the lists of Maxim’s Hot 100 females and AskMen’s top 99 Most Desirable Women, she confessed she’s a little shy when it comes to on-screen smooches.
—Prairie Miller WE KNOW YOU PERFECTED SKINNING SQUIRRELS AND CHOPPING WOOD FOR YOUR ACADEMY AWARD-NOMINATED ROLE IN WINTER’S BONE. ANY OTHER HIDDEN TALENTS? I was a cheerleader in school. I was the manliest cheerleader! I had the lowest voice.
WHY CHEERLEADING? I have this totally competitive side. And I’ll wrestle anyone, any time.
YOU REALLY SEEMED TO BE GETTING INTO THAT PHYSICALITY AS MYSTIQUE IN X-MEN: FIRST CLASS TOO.
and this is what we shouldn’t do. It was just simply a fictional story. And there are places like this in the world—this is something that is unfortunately true, all of these things.
HOW ARE YOU HANDLING THE FAME AND BEING SEEN AS A SEX SYMBOL? I’m excited to be seen as sexy, but not as slutty. My life as it is will never go back to how it was. It kind of feels like I got a ticket to go to an alien planet. You don’t know if you’re going to like it or not, but you can’t go back. But whatever comes of it, I know it was the right thing to do. I don’t regret it, even though it’s scary and annoying to be photographed all the time. There are always challenges in the entertainment industry, and almost purely dictated by luck. There are a million other actresses more talented than me. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how hard you work.
ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH SEX SCENES? I don’t look forward to them. But it’s all pretty technical. I don’t like kissing in rehearsals, because I worry that they’ll think that I like them in that way in real life. But I would rather do a kissing scene than a full-on sex scene.
THERE ARE A MILLION OTHER ACTRESSES MORE TALENTED THAN ME. IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW GOOD YOU ARE OR HOW HARD YOU WORK. HOW ABOUT DATING? Um, I’m not single.
I did not do one stunt! That X-suit—I couldn’t lift my arms above my shoulders, I couldn’t bend my knees and I was wearing platform shoes. I was there to save the world, but I couldn’t bend my knees!
DID YOU EVER THINK WINTER’S BONE WOULD GET YOU AN OSCAR NOD?
YOU SEEM PRETTY COMFORTABLE WITH THAT BOW AND ARROW IN THE HUNGER GAMES. WHAT LED YOU TO GO FOR IT AS KATNISS EVERDEEN?
No! I cried when we got into Sundance, because I thought maybe five or six people would see it. Now every single thing that’s happened after making it has surpassed any kind of expectation possible.
I’m not just a cool girl with a bow and arrow who goes around killing people. It’s an incredibly intense, beautiful and sad story. And it’s also kind of a horrific reflection on us as humanity, and in society. The thing that people love about the books is that they’re not just an exciting story. There are so many things that connect you to the books, in my opinion. But what lies underneath is a story about humanity that’s become so desensitized to shock and to tragedy that it’s now using tragedy and control as entertainment. And I think it’s a very sick reflection to us, who watch tragedy as entertainment ourselves.
HOW WAS IT SHOOTING ALL THE ACTION SCENES? It was over a hundred degrees. And we were passing out—my body was on fire! I was so tired by that time I just wanted to be inside and wear a dress and have makeup on. In every country there are starving people, and wars and famine. There are things that seem almost impossible and that we can’t control. This movie is set in the future and is science fiction. I don’t think we were necessarily saying, this is what we should do,
WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE AN ACTRESS? Not until it became a possibility. I grew up in Kentucky, so it was never really a possibility. It wasn’t until I was 14, when I read my first script in New York on spring break. It’s a long story! But it was the first thing I fully understood. I wasn’t a good student, and I wasn’t a good athlete. I wasn’t really good at a lot of things. But this I understood, and it was the first time I had been told that I was the best at anything. So I just felt like I had to do it. By then I was almost 15. I was always acting, anyway, like crying and sobbing, and then laughing. I was crazy! So it was meant to be.
WHAT WAS YOUR LIFE LIKE BEFORE COMPARED TO HOW YOUR LIFE IS NOW? My life was a little bit more boring. I slept in more. It’s kind of hard when you’re on the outside of it, because I don’t really assume that anybody recognizes me. I think it is busier—with less sleep. But happy. All is good.
Murray Close
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March 2012