Jennifer Lawrence: Girl on Fire - The Biography

Book excerpt: JENNIFER LAWRENCE is the reigning queen of lots of things: Hollywood, the awkward award-ceremony-stumble, and hundreds of priceless BuzzFeed pages - to name a few. She announced herself to the world at a young age in The Burning Plain and Winter’s Bone, gripping dramas set in America’s deprived heartland. Ironic, then, that such a gifted character actress has become a household name through two of the biggest fantasy roles in the business: the deadly shapeshifting assassin Mystique from Marvel’s X-Men series and the gutsy, warlike heroine of Suzanne Collin’s bestselling Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss Everdeen - the Girl on Fire. As Katniss and Mystique, she owns the screen, oozing grace, attitude and menace, re-defining the roles of women in action films as more than ragdolls to be saved by muscle-bound men; this girl doesn’t need saving by anyone. But Jennifer couldn’t be more different off-screen. Always ready with a smile or a quip about embarrassing everyday struggles, she is loved by millions for being a genuinely relatable personality in an industry of preening posers. And make no mistake: she has had every reason to lose her sunny disposition. She struggled early on in her career with a hurtful ‘fat actress’ label in spite of her healthy body type, and suffered public heartbreak with the likes of Coldplay’s Chris Martin. In 2014, she was to suffer the ultimate indignity of having private photos leaked onto the internet for all to see. A lesser girl might have become spiteful, but Jennifer has always emerged with her head held high. This is the first biography of an Academy Award winner, a star of our screens for years to come and a role model for girls and young women everywhere. In every sense, this really is the story of a Girl on Fire.