Long before she sprung into the spotlight as archer Katniss Everdeen in the dystopian trilogy Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence had high hopes of landing a very different role.
During her visit to The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday, February 28, the 27-year-old Oscar winner reflected on her Twilight audition as lead Bella Swan, a role that Kristen Stewart later nabbed.
“I didn’t really know what it was,” Lawrence admitted, noting that she had not anticipated how successful the franchise would become. “You just get like five pages [at the audition] and they’re like, ‘Act monkey.’ And when it came out I was like, ‘Hot damn. Whoa.’”
Lawrence first spoke about the audition during an interview with The Guardian back in December 2012. “I remember when the movie first came out, seeing Kristen Stewart on the red carpet and getting papped wherever she went,” the Silver Linings Playbook actress said at the time. “I had no idea Twilight would be such a big deal. For me, and assuming for her, it was just another audition. Then it turned into this whole other thing.”
The Red Sparrow star told Stern that she has no hard feelings about missing out on the part, as she later scored her breakthrough role in The Hunger Games. “I had such a solid indie career at that point so I was like, ‘This is perfect. I get to act and I’m not that famous,’” Lawrence said of her audition for the action-packed fantasy films. The Passengers actress also revealed that she feared being type-cast after the franchise took off. “I mean, I knew it was going to be a life-changer, I knew. And then the other fear was only being that character.”
