Jennifer Lawrence Loved Filming in the Water for 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire'
Jennifer Lawrence filming ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ (Photo: PacificCoastNews.com)
It’s an old Hollywood belief that filming on the water is one of the most challenging parts in all of moviemaking. The shoot of “Jaws” in the ocean off Martha’s Vineyard was so disastrous director Steven Spielberg said he was afraid his crew would try to drown him. A hurricane sank a multimillion dollar set for Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld,” causing the budget to spin out of control. And Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio risked hypothermia by spending weeks in an unheated water tank for “Titanic” (they couldn’t wear wetsuits because those would show through their period costumes).
But Jennifer Lawrence is used to be being the exception to a rule. The reigning Best Actress Oscar winner spent a lot of time filming in the water for “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” the sequel to last year’s smash hit adaptation of the bestselling novel. She told Yahoo! Movies at this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con that shooting extensive water scenes in Hawaii was a blast. And she didn’t hold back (both in the interview, and in the water).
Lawrence said, “It was so fun, because Josh [Hutcherson] and I could just swim in the water, or like, pee any time you want. Anytime you have to pee you can just run right in the water. It was amazing, because the water was really warm, and Hawaii is great. I love working in the water.”
In the just-released trailer for “Catching Fire,” you see Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen as she is elevated into the middle of a lake with the other contestants in the Hunger Games, and they all leap in to begin their deadly competition. It probably helped that she and the other tributes are outfitted in wetsuit-like uniforms, that surely kept their body temperatures in check. Of course, it sounds like the water got a little warmer in the immediate area around her as well.
Lawrence might feel at home in the water, but as anyone who saw her trip on the way up the stairs to accept her Oscar could tell you, she sometimes lacks grace in formal wear. She told us she had a similar experience during the filming of “Catching Fire,” where Katniss is presented to the television audience wearing an elaborate, ornate wedding dress.
Jennifer Lawrence in Katniss’ wedding gown (Photo: Lionsgate Films)
"Now the world knows how bad I am at walking in giant gowns," Lawrence told Yahoo! Movies. "That dress was incredible. It was like five feet in circumference, and I had to walk up a ramp in the scene. So there’s this hilarious outtake of me walking and just getting lower, lower, lower, and then poof!"
Perhaps the next time Jennifer Lawrence is up for an Oscar she can convince them to host the awards in a pool (and if it helps, Kate Winslet admitted that she and Leo DiCaprio relieved themselves in the water during “Titanic,” too).
