Jennifer Lawrence was clear about one thing as she prepared to play Katniss in The Hunger Games: she wasn’t going to starve herself to get the role.
In a 2012 interview, the actress explained that she was thinking especially about the girls who would watch the film. “I’m never going to starve myself for a role”, she said. “I don’t want girls to think, ‘I want to look like Katniss, so I’m going to skip dinner’”.
During training, she said, she aimed for her body to look strong and fit, not extremely thin.
Over the years, she also revealed that she had faced intense pressure to lose weight in Hollywood, and even threats of losing jobs. In 2013, she again challenged those standards and called on the media to take responsibility for their influence on younger generations.
““I think it should be illegal to call someone fat on television”,” she said at the time.
For Lawrence, the issue was never just how she looked, but the message those demands could send to girls growing up watching her.