INTERVIEW: Jennifer Lawrence on Katniss: "Katniss is a girl I can understand...It was a little bit like she and I were soulmates."

Jennifer Lawrence shares her thoughts about getting the role of Katniss Everdeen, her impending superstardom, her chemistry with co-star Josh Hutcherson, and how she hopes Katniss will influence the young people.
Here's an excerpt of the interview:

“When you get a promotion at your job, you never say, ‘That was too fast. Can I stay in the mailroom?’ You take it gratefully,” she counters. “I’m as ready as I can be.”
Then she laughs and gives her bluntly honest assessment. “Mostly, I’m clueless,” says Lawrence, who adds, “Every time, I pass a ‘Hunger Games’ poster, my entire body breaks out into goosebumps.”
Lawrence might have had an Oscar nomination under her belt for an obscure film called “Winter’s Bone,” but that didn’t mean she was a lock for a role coveted by other accomplished actresses including Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit”), Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) and Saoirse Ronan (“Hanna”).
“Hell, yes, I was competitive about it,” Lawrence insists. “For me, it has nothing to do with being a better actor. I’m not better than those other girls.
“This role was just me. It was a little bit like Katniss and I were soulmates.”
Known for the long braid in her hair and the bow and arrow on her back, Katniss is one of 23 “tributes,” or teens fighting for their lives, in the film version of Suzanne Collins’ futuristic best-seller.
“I knew I could read the lines and say them without forcing anything. I could speak as this character,” she says. “There are a lot of scripts where I simply can’t find those words. There are no way those words can come out of my mouth and feel natural.
“Katniss is a girl I can understand.”
“Her feelings for Peeta are confusing,” Lawrence admits. “She does love him and wants a person with her in the games. But I think she gets confused about what’s real and what’s for TV during this fight for survival. If you have a higher sense of surviving by being in love with someone, then you do it.”
One problem: feigning love for Hutcherson.
“In real life, we have that annoying brother-and-sister thing going,” Lawrence says. “We’ll fight about who is on the face of a $10 bill. That’s our crack-down fight.
“We play with each other like cats, clawing at each other,” she says, laughing. “That’s not the chemistry you hope to find between two lovers!”

Just when I though I couldn't love her more!

You can read the full interview on Chicago Sun-times.

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