LAWRENCE reprises her role as Katniss Everdeen.
LOS ANGELES – “Wouldn’t that be hilarious if I did?” a laughing Jennifer Lawrence replied when asked if she would keep her new, very becoming short hairdo for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1 and 2.” It was the week that the actress appeared with the sexy pixie cut. “She’s really rebelling now,” she joked about her character, Katniss Everdeen. Then she added, “No, I will be in a wig.”
The 23-year-old Oscar and Golden Globe Best Actress winner for “Silver Linings Playbook” explained how she decided to do away with her long hair: “I cut my hair earlier and then it grew to that awkward length so I was like, eh, just cut it off. I didn’t mean to make a national statement out of it.”
Aside from “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” Jennifer will be seen late this year in David O. Russell’s 1970s-set crime drama, “American Hustle,” which also stars Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams. “I play Rosalyn Rosenfeld, Christian Bale’s wife,” she said. “He is a con artist and we got married when I was very young. He doesn’t trust me with any information so I’m always feeling like, I know there are lies happening but I don’t know what they are. I am a drinker.”
She gushed, “The clothes are fantastic. Rosalyn was this incredible character. David and I laughed about it because there would be a couple of things that maybe you didn’t like about her, but you could never argue, ‘Oh, Rosalyn wouldn’t do that’ or ‘Rosalyn wouldn’t say that’ (laughs). She’s just all over the place… she’s just so crazy. But I understood her train of thought. It just cracked me up. It was a really fun, refreshing character to play. Everybody in the cast is playing a character unlike anything that [each of us has] done.”
A producer now
Jennifer, considered one of the biggest actresses of her generation, is turning into a producer. She’s producing “The Rules of Inheritance” with Susanne Bier directing. She said, “Producing is important to me because I remember being an actor, before I was known, that it was this small pool that people cast from. It’s like you can’t get famous until you are already famous.
“I remember the frustration because there is so much good, amazing young talent out there, including first-time writers and directors. I remember wanting to, if I could, change that and give fresh, new people an opportunity. That’s why I wanted to produce. ‘The Rules of Inheritance’ was something I read a few years ago when I was in Prague shooting a movie that Susanne Bier was directing. I love her. I think she’s a fantastic director.”
Theme park
On Lionsgate, the studio behind “The Hunger Games,” announcing that a theme park based on the hit franchise is being developed, Jennifer remarked, “I haven’t pictured the theme park. But I love steep roller coasters—the scarier, the better.”
She was just in a theme park with her “X-Men: Days of Future Past” costar and his family. “I was recently at Six Flags with Hugh Jackman and his kids,” Jennifer related. “He was talking in the makeup trailer about how he was going to Six Flags with his kids. I just straight up asked if he could take me, too. I am guessing ‘The Hunger Games’ park will be like [Six Flags].”
Teased about “Hunger Games” costar Josh Hutcherson describing her as “a little bit clumsy” in another interview, Jennifer admitted, “My limbs and I have never really been on the same page about where to go and what to do. I was a really gawky kid. I think I was 13 when my legs went up to here. I was like a baby deer whenever I tried to bend down.
“Since then, I have never been on the same page with my legs. I bump into a lot of things. I trip. Josh was referring to the time we were running through the grass. I got my bow caught in the long grass. When I pulled it free, it flung and hit my chin so hard that I flew backwards. I have never been a really graceful person.”
Of course, Jennifer looks far from clumsy in her films. She’s very pleased with how “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” came out under Francis Lawrence’s direction. “When I first saw the movie, I was absolutely blown away. I texted Francis, ‘I can’t talk to you right now and for at least a couple of days.’ I was so surprised by the emotions I felt because you remember those things on the day, and you are a part of it. But just watching that he can tell a story in a very visual way—even the lenses that he chooses—the whole thing was incredibly emotional. I was really proud of it. I thought the CG was so impressive—like it’s 10 years into the future.”
‘East of Eden’
Asked if she believes that it’s possible for a woman to fall for two men at the same, as portrayed in the love triangle involving her character and those of Josh and Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer quickly replied, “I do think [so, but] you have to face what Katniss has to face.” Laughing, she quipped, “You have to choose.”
About the planned remake of John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” (the 1955 film starred James Dean) in which she will star and Gary Ross will direct, Jennifer confessed, “I haven’t seen ‘East of Eden’; I just read the book. I will watch it—I hate saying that. The book is my favorite. Gary Ross, the director of the first (“Hunger Games”) movie, knew how much I loved the book and he loved the book as well. He called me [when] he got the rights to the book. I was overwhelmed because, what were the chances? It’s an incredible story. He is such an amazing director. I really hope that happens.”
On the parallels between Katniss’ world and the real one in which we live, with the threat of battles and wars looming, Jennifer said, “I am looking forward to when our biggest weapons are words and I am not saying that to sound like a hippie or an idiot. I look forward to the day when we can stop killing each other and just start talking things out. That seems like a great future.”
(E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.)