Jennifer Lawrence and the 'Hunger Games' Girls
A number of young actresses -- lead by 21-year-old Jennifer Lawrence -- have been cast in the highly-anticipated movie The Hunger Games, based on the best-selling book. Jennifer was already a rising starlet for her Oscar-nominated turn in last year's Winter's Bone and her upcoming role as Mystique in X-Men: First Class (due out in June), but her career all but exploded in March, when she won the coveted part of Hunger Games's Katniss Everdeen. Jennifer beat out hundreds of other young actresses hoping to play the tough-as-nails heroine, including Chloe Moretz, Jodelle Ferland, Isabelle Fuhrman, and Hailee Steinfeld. ( You might remember that this blog almost exploded from all the speculation!)
Entertainment Weekly recently released a photo of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. Have a look:
As fans of the book, we weren't thrilled when Jennifer was cast, and this photo confirms why. Jennifer is an excellent young actress, but she's not right for Katniss. She's too old for the part (Katniss is 16 in the first book) and she looks it. She's too pretty, the dark hair is obviously a dye-job, and she seems to be fake-tanned, too. For comparison, we've also posted a photo of 16-year-old Jodelle Ferland as Katniss, in the homemade Halloween costume she wore last year. She looks exactly how we pictured Katniss, and frankly, we're still a bit bummed that she didn't get the part.
Meanwhile, here are the girls who will appear alongside Jennifer in The Hunger Games:
Newcomer, and New Mexico native, Willow Shields, age 10, will play Katniss' delicate and much-loved 12-year-old sister, Primrose Everdeen. When Katniss listens in horror as Prim's name is called to represent District 12 in the Hunger Games, she immediately sacrifices herself to save her sister. "Prim is an emotionally demanding role, and in many ways she is the cornerstone of the story," says director Gary Ross.
12-year-old Amandla Stenburg will play Katniss's fellow tribute, Rue. Rue, the 12-year-old tribute from District 11, reminds Katniss of her younger sister, Prim. That association leads Katniss to team up with the young tribute and form a friendship that has a lasting effect on the heroine throughout the entire trilogy.
While 14-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman didn't to play Katniss like she'd hoped, she did win a smaller part in the film: Clove, the knife-wielding tribute from District 2. Two years after her turn as a murderous tyke in Orphan, Isabelle will play a cold-blooded killer who takes tremendous glee in slaughtering her competitors -- and has Katniss in her crosshairs. As an avid fan of the book, Isabelle posted on her Twitter page that she is "so excited" to be part of the movie.