Whether you saw the movie or read the book, everyone’s talking about The Hunger Games – and the film’s rising star, Jennifer Lawrence. It’s a role of a lifetime for the 21-year-old actress, despite the fans of the books saying she was “too fat, too pretty and too blonde” to play heroin Katniss Everdeen.
“I didn’t know until the interviewers told me that all the fans were p****d because I was blonde. Then I was like, ‘What? Damn, I’ll just dye my hair’.”
So she dyed her hair and started dropping weight – unintentionally.
“It was intense. I had training about three times a day for a few months. Then, once we started working, I had to have the training just for endurance because it was so many hours. I mean, if there’s a scene of me running up a mountain, that’s what we shot all day – me running up a mountain. I had about six weeks of archery. It was brand new to me and I loved it. I think I’m good at shooting arrows now — and I can skin a squirrel!”
“It was great to lose weight because it was unintentional. I didn’t go to the gym once. It was just a really physical movie. I actually ate more on that movie than I ever have on any other because it was non-stop and physical and I needed energy. It happened very naturally with all the training. It was hard to keep weight on for continuity. I ate a ton. Any picture you see of me from that set, I’m probably eating.”
She adds:
“It is so strange to see in Hollywood how skinny these women are and how that puts pressure on our young girls. I remember being in school when I was 14 and girls were on diets and eating salads with dressing on the side. It was just weird. It’s not healthy because I don’t really think that’s beautiful. Every time somebody talks about skinny, nobody ever writes how great it is to be skinny and how everyone loves someone who is skinny. They’re always writing about when this fad is going to end. I can’t wait for it to end.”
We need more young actresses like her in Hollywood!
