Summary:
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Francis Lawrence compares Katniss Everdeen and Lucy Gray Baird, emphasizing the difference in their sexuality and survival instincts.
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Fans react to the director’s comments on the characters, with some feeling the comments detract from the story’s essence.
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BookTok community dissects the characters, debating their similarities, differences, and the impact of the director’s statements.
Francis Lawrence, the director of “The Hunger Games” trilogy and now its prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, spoke out recently on the differences between the film’s respective heroines, Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) and Lucy Gray Baird (played by Rachel Zegler). The primary difference, Lawrence believes, is in the characters’ sexuality.
In an interview with Empire Online, the director said “Katniss was an introvert and a survivor. She was quite quiet and stoic, you could almost say [she was] asexual. Lucy Gray is the opposite. She wears her sexuality on her sleeve, [and] she really is a performer.”
The director’s comments are being met with mixed reactions. While both characters do appear to have different survival mechanisms in the dystopian series, many longtime fans of the book-to-film adaptations feel that the differences do not lie in their sexuality.
The original trilogy of films, released in the early 2010s, notably launched the careers of a number of its stars, including Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson.
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Social Media Reactions
Avid readers of Suzanne Collins’ original book series on which the popular films are based argued that Katniss’ character was never asexual, but simply under a lot of pressure and put her family first. Additionally, Katniss felt responsible for her entire community, and was a part of a national revolution.
I don’t recall Lucy wearing sexuality on her sleeve in the books. And Katniss doesn’t give off asexual vibes. She was a teenager under a lot of stress…
— Original Doll (@22dbrit) August 29, 2023
