The Hunger Games conquered the box office. The story of teens forced to fight in televised battles to the death was number one. Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen, the tribute from a poor district who volunteers to fight in place of her little sister. The actress became a skilled markswoman learning to master her character’s weapon of choice – the bow and arrow.
“My character is not about looking cool with a bow-and-arrow — she’s heartbroken by all that she has to do. It was important for me not to look weak despite being hungry. If the film had been shot 20 years ago, Katniss may just have been a male character because of the dominance of men in cinema in the action genre,” Lawrence told the Hindustan Times.
This is Lawrence’s second action film. She played the young Mystique in X-Men: First Class. The Times asked her about the change in the trend in action films.
“It’s great, because I feel like we’ve got to a place where we have strong female leads. We’ve got Lara Croft as the female James Bond. In Hunger Games, I am not the female James Bond, and I don’t have to be that to get to do action. I’m just a young girl who has been thrown in to this do-or-die situation. That, I think, is a great shift and symbolises acceptance of women in strong action oriented roles.”
Given the box-office, I’m sure Lionsgate will greenlight sequels based on the other books in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Lawrence will get to learn more survival and political skills as Katniss becomes a symbol of the uprising in the world of Panem.