Not bad for a 21-year-old.
When asked whether any of the veterans with whom she has worked left a significant impression on her, she doesn't hesitate.
"Jodie Foster," the lightly freckled Kentuckian says of her director in "The Beaver." "I remember looking at her and being so relieved because it was, like, the third movie I'd done. ... She wasn't just nice; she's normal. There's this air about (some) famous people, and she has none of it. I was so relieved because I thought, 'Not only can I be nice, but there's a chance I can be normal, too.' "
Lawrence's career is about to take a leap well beyond the norm. She stars as Katniss Everdeen in the hotly anticipated film adaptation of "The Hunger Games," from Suzanne Collins' popular young-adult novels. "Hunger's" dystopian future finds North America divided into districts that once unsuccessfully rebelled against the central "Capitol." Decades later, each must pay annual tribute by offering two teenagers to take part in a televised duel to the death against youths from other districts.
Katniss of the sci-fi "Hunger" and Ree of the gritty "Winter's Bone" are both fatherless mountain girls with checked-out mothers, forced to undergo dangerous trials to save their families. Lawrence acknowledges the similarities but says she didn't particularly apply the lessons of one to the other.
"I'm very much into just memorizing my lines and saying them when I get to set," she says. "I never kind of prepare anything emotionally. They're different people; I approached them differently."
"Hunger Games" director and co-writer Gary Ross says, "What I really saw in 'Winter's Bone' was a great actress. When she came and sat with me, she seemed very much like Katniss. There's a clarity, there's a strength, no BS to her.
"When Jen really lets you glimpse all four barrels and shows you her emotional depth, it's a pretty amazing thing. I honestly think it's the beginning of a pretty historic career. There were days when I felt, 'Wow, I'm really lucky to be making one of the first Jennifer Lawrence movies,' because I know what this career is gonna be."
So what was her greatest concern in portraying a character from another rabidly followed franchise?
"Signing on to it, I was like, 'God, I don't want to go on another diet.' I was really not digging doing a movie called 'The Hunger Games,' " she says, with wide-eyed emphasis. "Then it was a lot less scary when Gary said, 'You're a hunter. You have to be strong. You've got to be muscular; you can't look like a waif.' And I was like, 'Oh, that's OK.' " She laughs with relief.
Lawrence participated in several sports in school. That athletic background helped her endure the physical and mental rigors of relentless archery and running training. Despite Katniss' abilities and her PR persona as the "Girl on Fire," though, the actress describes her as "not a Lara Croft; she's just a girl who's been sent into this world. She becomes, by default, this symbol for revolt and freedom and hope, this Joan of Arc."
"Hunger Games" will inevitably draw comparisons to other bleak views of future sport, especially "Battle Royale," and to other teen-lit phenomena such as "Twilight," but it actually bears little resemblance to those two.
"I think it is a political story," Ross says. "It's not hard to see the 1 percent and the 99 percent in here. It's not hard to see the excesses of wealth and the subjugation of the districts — there's obviously a neocolonial relationship there, an exploitive one. They're controlled through the media and entertainment and access to the culture — in other words, if we get them playing the game, then we really have them. And ultimately Katniss says, 'I refuse to play your game.' "
The actress adds, "It's a good message and a powerful message, especially for our generation — for people in society, for humanity, to not be quiet when things are wrong."
When picturing her future, Lawrence doesn't fantasize about making blockbusters or catching three golden trophies like Meryl Streep.
"It's always my personal life," she says. "It's always being a mom and having a family. I've got a minivan and someone's barfing in the backseat, and I'm driving them to soccer practice. As a little kid, I wouldn't daydream about my career as an actor; it was always vomit in the backseat."
