Danny White - Jennifer, Liam and Josh: An Unauthorized Biography of the Stars of The Hunger Games

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by

Michael OMara Books Limited

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Copyright Michael OMara Books Limited 2013

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78243-173-2 in hardback print format

ISBN: 978-1-78243-182-4 in trade paperback format

ISBN: 978-1-78243-184-8 in e-book format

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W ith the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the hand of destiny that guided Jennifer Lawrence to the role of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games can be seen throughout the events of her childhood and her subsequent meteoric rise in the film industry. The rebellious child of twenty-first-century cinema, she instinctively challenges many of the industrys rules and regulations, particularly some of the more proscriptive ones that apply to females. If this means that some do not look on her with affection, well, that is fine with her: Im just not likeable all the time, she has said. Jennifer has a confidence and wisdom beyond her years, and she believes that this is something with which she was born. I have an old soul, she told Interview magazine. Likeable or not, her wise, assured nature has helped her land one of this centurys most sought-after female movie roles, making her the toast of Hollywood. Yet her childhood was far from glittering.

Jennifer Shrader Lawrence was born into a changing world on 15 August 1990. In the year of her birth, Germany was reunified, Nelson Mandela was released from jail in South Africa, America went to war with Iraq over Saddam Husseins occupation of Kuwait and the Internet was invented. The movie world was also changing, with CGI techniques advancing in one of the years biggest releases, Total Recall. Among other films to draw the crowds that year were Ghost, Pretty Woman, Dances with Wolves and Home Alone. The showbiz year ended with Tom Cruise marrying actress Nicole Kidman on Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, Jennifer was taking her first breaths in the outside world, as her family adapted to the new arrival. Jennifer told the Belfast Telegraph: I grew up in such a normal family. She realized, though, that this statement would need clarification. OK, we werent that normal I had a goat for a pet but we were semi-normal. Her parents had met during their higher education. Her mother Karen was born in 1956 and attended Westport High School in Westport, California. After graduating in 1974, she went to the University of Louisville in Kentucky. It was there she met Gary, Jennifers father.

By the time Jennifer came along, Gary owned a construction company called Lawrence and Associates INC, while Karen ran a childrens day camp called Camp Hi-Ho where kids come first. The camp promises prospective visitors summer fun for Louisville, KY area kids 513 years old. As the website states: Children can catch a fish, swim, ride horses, paddle boats and canoes, snuggle up with puppies and kittens, play sports, shoot water guns in the tree fort, swing on a rope swing, speed down a zip line, show off skills at the talent show, cool off on the 100-foot slip n slide, lather up in the shaving cream war, bounce off the BLOB into the lake, get a face paint, tie-dye a shirt and catch critters! Eventually, Gary stepped aside from his construction duties to help Karen with her growing project.

Their first two children were both male, and Jennifer was an unplanned addition to the clan. We thought we were finished having kids, her mother told Rolling Stone. We got rid of the baby bed and everything. They nicknamed their daughter Plays With Fire; it was only later in life that Jennifer realized they chose this name to reflect the fact that they had played with fire and, in the form of an unexpected pregnancy, got their fingers burned. This was not her only moniker: she was also nicknamed Nitro, which means hyper. Her two older brothers are called Ben and Blaine.

Jennifer stood out from the start: she was in fact the first female to be born on the Lawrence side of the family for over fifty years. Although Karen has spoken of her excitement at the arrival of a daughter, saying, I couldnt wait to have a little girl and dress her up, Jennifer soon showed that she had her own ideas about her attire. She preferred to wear jeans and sweaters, just like her big brothers. This would influence her upbringing enormously: the family were keen that she was not overindulged into little princess territory, so they sometimes overcompensated, treating her robustly rather than with kid gloves. As she told Elle magazine, Jennifer is now aware that her family were so adamant that she would not turn into a princess that they went in the exact opposite direction. Her mother agrees: I didnt want her to be a diva, said Karen. I didnt mind if she was girlie, as long as she was tough.

One day, while in pre-school, this came to a head when Jennifer was banned from playing with other girls, due to her unruly nature. She didnt mean to hurt them, her mum told Rolling Stone. They were just making cookies, and she wanted to play ball. A neighbour of the family saw a different side to the youngster. Speaking to the New York Daily News, Jane Schmidt described the Lawrence clan as a wonderful Christian family, and Jennifer as very sweet.

But behind the doors of the household things were often boisterous. For instance, when Jennifer once slapped one of her brothers on the arm, he threw her down the stairs in response. Can we talk about excessive force, please? she asked him. Those moments hurt at the time, but prepared her well for her future existence as, in the words of Rolling Stone magazine, Americas kick-ass sweetheart. The months of intensive training she had to undergo for The Hunger Games bordered on brutal at times. Her experience of rough-and-tumble in her formative years served her well in other ways, too. For instance, she communicates confidently with men thanks to growing up with two male siblings. I grew up with brothers so I normally talk to guys like boys talk to boys, she told The Sun.

But growing up as the younger sibling of two brothers, the experience of Jen, as the family knew her, was different to that of Katniss Everdeen. As the youngest sibling in the family, she will have been prone to certain characteristics, according to those who subscribe to the theory that a childs birth order has a significant influence on their development. For instance, she would be likely to be outgoing and charming, with a tendency for manipulation. She would also be expected to be single-minded, determined and rebellious, and certainly not one to pay much heed to accepted norms or rules. Youngest siblings are, according to the theories outlined by author Linda Blair in her book Birth Order, happy to take risks. However, Blair also argues that when the first child of a gender is born, parents sometimes treat that child more as a firstborn, such is their excitement over the new arrival. This tendency magnifies in families with three or more children. A personality-based school of thought that Lawrence does subscribe to is astrology: she describes herself as a fiery Leo. She has demonstrated several of the star signs characteristics, including confidence, creativity and ambition. But then, most successful actors have done so and not all of them are Leos. However, her identification with her sign forms another part of her self-definition.