Jennifer Lawrence achieved global super-stardom by landing the role of Katniss Everdeen in Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games” franchise, which launched in 2012 and spanned four films through 2015. The franchise grossed $2.9 billion at the worldwide box office with Lawrence at the forefront. However, Lawrence’s tenure as Katniss would not have been possible had a different audition gone in the Oscar winner’s favor.
“I auditioned for ‘Twilight,’” Lawrence confirmed during a recent interview on “The Rewatchables” podcast. “They turned me down immediately. I didn’t even get a callback. But my life would’ve been totally different. I got ‘Hunger Games’ I think, like, a year later. It was probably after ‘Winter’s Bone.’”
Summit Entertainment’s “Twilight” saga launched in 2008 and spanned five movies through 2012. The franchise, which turned Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner into overnight stars, earned $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office. Lawrence said she had to “churn out movies in between” her “Hunger Games” films so that she was “not only known for this franchise,” which is something she’d still have to do if she booked “Twilight” instead.
“I was still in a franchise, so I was still trying to counteract the franchise-ness,” Lawrence said. “I’d still be doing that if I was in ‘Twilight.’ But I almost didn’t do ‘Hunger Games’ because ‘Twilight’ had come out and that fandom had happened.”
“When I was trying to talk to people about making this decision after [‘Hunger Games’] got offered to me, it was hard to explain to people… this level of fame,” Lawrence said. “I assumed it was going to be the ‘Twilight’ level of fame and that was never something I had in mind. I never wanted to be the most famous person on the planet. That’s a very different life than I pictured for me.”
Given “Twilight” launched in the late 2000s, its stars were subjected to paparazzi and a tabloid culture that differed from Lawrence’s experience in the mid-2010s. Lawrence was still hounded, of course, but she said “I would’ve been miserable, too” had she starred in “Twilight” and had to deal with the media attention Stewart, Pattinson and Lautner faced.
Lionsgate is set to continue “The Hunger Games” franchise later this year with the prequel movie “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” which stars Viola Davis, Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman and Hunter Schafer. Lawrence recently told Variety that she would be open to reprising Katniss should the franchise continue.
“Oh, my God – totally!” Lawrence said when asked about a “Hunger Games” return. “If Katniss ever could ever come back into my life, 100 percent.”
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” opens in theaters Nov. 17.
