Katniss Inspired Jennifer Lawrence To Address Gender Wage Gap, Lawrence Says

Jennifer Lawrence is on a major press tour for the final installment of the Hunger Games franchise, ending in global premieres for the release of Mockingjay: Part 2. She’s also been in the headlines recently for penning a controversial Lenny letter addressing the gender wage gap in Hollywood. And now, she’s saying that she owes her newfound activism to her character, Katniss.

Katniss Everdeen is the face of a violent revolution in the Hunger Games films, but she’s inspired Lawrence in a much smaller way. At the Berlin premiere of the new film, Jennifer Lawrence was asked if her on-screen persona influenced her life in any way. Lawrence enthusiastically affirmed it.

She said:

“I don’t see how I couldn’t be inspired by this character, I mean I was so inspired by her when I read the books, it’s the reason I wanted to play her.

“So I think it would be impossible to go four years with this character and not be inspired by her.”

Jennifer Lawrence owes much of her fame and success as an actor and an Oscar winner to her portrayal of Katniss, and she may also owe her feminism to the character, too. But Jennifer Lawrence also stated that she wished her character was more proactive earlier in the films. Katniss is sort of strong-armed into being the leader of a revolution, and Lawrence said she’d rather Katniss have stepped into the role earlier on.

“I wanted her to be a warrior right away, I wanted her to want to be a leader. I had to keep my own personal emotions about her situation out of my performance.”

It seems as if Lawrence is more like her on-screen character than she even realizes.