Vanity Fair released a photoshoot of the cast of The Hunger Games and an interview with Jen. Enjoy!

For those mourning the passing of the Harry Potter cycle and dreading the looming end of the Twilight saga, Suzanne Collins has come to the rescue with her spellbinding trilogy of novels, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. The first comes to movie theaters on March 23. The post-apocalyptic drama takes place in Panem, a North American country that is divided into 12 districts. Every year children between the ages of 12 and 18 must enter their names in a lottery known as “the reaping.” Each district selects a boy and a girl to compete with the representatives of the other districts in a televised fight to the death. The final victor wins a life free from want. Collins got the idea for the books from watching footage of the Iraq war and reality television. Adapted for the screen by writer-director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit), the films are positioned to be Hollywood’s next big teen franchise. “My kids turned me on to it, and I went nuts,” says Ross, adding, “You rarely get a tentpole that has this much emotional depth, this much character to dive into.” Jennifer Lawrence, who received an Oscar nomination last year for her performance in Winter’s Bone, is Katniss, the heroine, who, when her younger sister gets picked in the reaping, volunteers to take her place. “Katniss is an incredible character: she’s a hunter but not a killer, a 16-year-old who’s being forced into the arena,” says Lawrence. “These kids are killing one another only because if they don’t they’ll die. It’s heartbreaking.” Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right) plays Peeta, who has loved Katniss since childhood and who is also chosen in the reaping. “I literally read all three books over the course of five days,” he says. “My mind was blown by how much I felt I was like Peeta. We shot in the forest near Asheville, North Carolina—a lot of fight scenes, very physically demanding. Jennifer and I totally hit it off. We’re both crazy people—we don’t hold anything back.” Ross concludes, “My responsibility was to Suzanne and the readers, to give them the same experience they had when they read the book. I was just so lucky that I had the cast I had.”

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In one calendar year, 21-year-old Jennifer Lawrence has gone from fresh-faced unknown to the next big thing. After her best-actress-Oscar-nominated performance in last year’s Winter’s Bone, which won best picture at the Independent Spirit Awards, Lawrence was an X-Men heroine, and she’ll soon star in spring’s most anticipated release—The Hunger Games. Senior West Coast editor Krista Smith reached her in Philadelphia, where she is filming her next movie, The Silver Linings Playbook. Highlights from their chat:

Krista Smith: First off, congratulations again on your best-actress nomination! Since then you’ve been working nonstop. Have the experiences from those insane weeks sunk in yet?
Jennifer Lawrence: Thanks. I don’t know if an experience like that can ever sink in, but I’m so grateful for it.

Tell me about how you got to be involved in this project.
I had read the books before I even knew I would be auditioning for the movie, and was a huge fan of the material. Actually, my mom read them first and thought it was an incredible role and story. She did the same thing with Winter’s Bone, so she must be a clairvoyant, or just has really great taste. Katniss is an incredible character: she’s a hunter but not a killer, a 16-year-old who’s being forced into the arena. These kids are killing one another only because if they don’t they’ll die. It’s needless, pointless, unjustified violence. It’s heartbreaking. When I auditioned, I told [director] Gary [Ross], “I understand if you don’t hire me, but please remember that after Katniss shoots a bow and kills someone, her face cannot be badass.” So there’s nothing cool about her. It’s not like she looks around the arena and goes, Yeah, I got this. I think she looks around helplessly, and thinks, I made a promise to my sister that I would survive; now I have to kill in order to do so.

Do you worry at all about the film becoming a massive phenomenon in the way of Twilight—and what that will mean for your personal and professional life?
I try not to think too much about it. Hunger Games is not Twilight, and while I hear the comparisons, it’s really premature to say that it will be the same phenomenon. I’m so proud of the work we did on the film—Gary and the entire cast and crew were amazing, and I can’t wait for it to be brought to life because I think it’s an important story. If it does become a crazy phenomenon, I’ll soak up my freedom now!

Do you think the film will do justice in the eyes of the books’ fans?
Absolutely.

What has been the most interesting or challenging experience you’ve had on this project?
The fact that it didn’t feel like filming a movie. When we were filming in the woods, it didn’t have that Hollywood gloss—it was real snakes, real bears, and really scenes of running up and down a mountain for 13 hours.

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