Director Gary Ross Selects Jennifer Lawrence to Play Katness Everdeen

Posted on March 21, 2011

Jennifer Lawrence has landed the coveted Katness Everdeen role in the big screen version of Suzanne Collins' novel, The Hunger Games. Industry pundits and fans have debating which actress would get the coveted role for months, but Jennifer Lawrence has always been the frontrunner. Direct Gary Ross talked about his choice in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Ross was very impressed by the great job Lawrence did in Winter's Bone.

Ross also defends accusations that Lawrence, 20, is not young enough to play Katness. He told EW, "This is a girl who needs to incite a revolution. We can't have an insubstantial person play her, and we can't have someone who's too young to play this. Suzanne was incredibly adamant about this. Far from being too old, she was very concerned that we would cast someone who was too young. In Suzanne's mind, and in mine, Katniss is not a young girl. It's important for her to be a young woman. She's a maternal figure in her family."

We are glad a teenage actress was not selected. Maturity does sound important for this role.