The Girl on Fire
Jayde Eubanks
“Jennifer Lawrence is the most electric talent to hit Hollywood in a generation,” according to Vogue magazine. The twenty-four year old actress has become the world’s hottest celebrity, resulting in three Academy Award nominations and one Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role win at the 85th Academy Awards for her role as Tiffany, a mysterious and insane young widow, in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. Lawrence stars alongside Bradley Cooper as Pat Solitano, a man recently diagnosed with acute bipolar disorder, who tries everything and anything to reunite with his ex-wife, but encounters Tiffany instead.
In 2011, Jennifer starred as the popular blue mutant, Mystique, in X Men: First Class. The X-Men franchise continued their second chapter of the trilogy with X Men: Days of Future Past in the summer of 2014, which released on DVD just last month on October 14th. Because of Lawrence’s outstanding performance in X Men: First Class, she became a villain for X Men: Days of Future Past, resulting in an entertaining two hour action flick with some of the original cast of the previous X Men movies. X Men: Apocalypse, the last of the trilogy is scheduled to release in theaters in May of 2016.
In addition to becoming everyone’s favorite mutant, Jennifer Lawrence has also become the face of the worldwide phenomenon The Hunger Games. She is cast as the teenage heroine Katniss Everdeen. Every year, two children, a boy and a girl, between the ages of 12 to 18 are chosen from each of the country of Panem’s twelve districts to participate in a televised death match called The Hunger Games. When Katniss’ little sister, Prim, is randomly selected from district twelve to compete in the year’s most dreaded event, Katniss volunteers to take her place to save Prim’s life. Jennifer Lawrence stars in the film with Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, a district twelve tribute, and Liam Hemsworth, Katniss’ long time best friend. Catching Fire, the second of the four films, appeared on screens last November. It became the top grossing movie of 2013, surpassing Marvel’s Iron Man 3, and went down in history as the first female-led film to top a domestic box office since The Exorcist in 1973. Excitement for the third installment of The Hunger Games franchise, Mockingjay Part 1, has been building up since the release of Catching Fire. Mockingjay Part 1 is set to release this month on November 21st. As stated by Kelsey Quirin, “I’m pretty excited because the last movie was amazing.” Emily Smith also added her opinion on the matter. “I didn’t read the books, but I’ve seen the last two movies. It’ll be interesting to finally see what happens.” Others were happy to share how they felt about the release of the film and the enthusiasm surrounding its new plotline. Payton Bridegroom, the last of the interviewees, said, “I’m really excited because last year’s movie was incredible, so I feel this year’s is going to be even better.” The much anticipated and final installment of the franchise, Mockingjay Part 2, will be released November 20th, 2015. The filming process for Part 2 officially ended in June.
Although Jennifer has become the most famous actress in the world, she still manages to stay true to herself, which is a bizarre, confident, and comical individual from the city of Louisville, Kentucky. As stated by Jennifer Lawrence, “Because I feel normal I expect to be treated normally and I’m trying to be being patient with the fact that that’s not exactly how everybody else feels.” The starlet is also known for her inability to filter what comes to mind and her brutally honest advice. This is another reason why people love her so much. For example, when questioned about the characters she plays, she replied, “I never play characters that are like me because I'm a boring person. I wouldn't want to see me in a movie.”
Fame is not the most important aspect of being a human, it’s wanting to leave a legacy and wanting to have people remember you when you’re no longer here. Jennifer Lawrence has already began her legacy at the age of twenty-four and she truly leaves her mark. It is clear that she has a very bright future ahead. As a director might say, “That’s a wrap!”
