Even the toughest young actress in Hollywood has to amp up the training if she wants to win a to-the-death battle royale.
Jennifer Lawrence is no stranger to physicality -- the 20-year old Kentucky native grew up wrangling wild horses on her family's farm, and used that Appalachian toughness to work her way through both the stark poverty and violence of "Winter's Bone" and the mutant action of "X-Men: First Class." But for her biggest role yet, Katniss in "The Hunger Games," she's had to up the training to a new level.
"It's lots of training," she told MTV, "but the training's actually really fun. I've done archery for about six weeks, and rock climbing, tree climbing—and combat, running and vaulting. But also yoga and things like that, to stay catlike!"
The work is paying off; she recently appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, giving the world its first glimpses of her teenage warrior style.
In addition, it was revealed late Monday that rocker/actor Lenny Kravitz had joined the cast, playing Katniss' fashion stylist Cinna. He joins including Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth as Katniss' close friends Peeta and Gale in the semi-apocalyptic youth fighting tournament from which the film derives its name, as well as Elizabeth Banks as her guide Elfie Trinket, Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy.