Jennifer Lawrence had her breakout role with a terrific teen movie franchise in The Hunger Games. But before Jennifer Lawrence was synonymous with Oscars and televised child fighting, she auditioned for more of the best teen movies of the YA era.
We’re unshamed Twilight apologists here at The Digital Fix, with plenty of Team Jacob and Team Bella stans in our ranks. It was, of course, Kristen Stewart who brought protagonist Bella Swan to the screen in the best movies based on books by Stephenie Meyer – with apologies to The Host. But Lawrence could have starred in those movies too.
Lawrence explained on an episode of podcast series The Rewatchables that she auditioned for the Twilight movies, though she didn’t specify whether it was the role of Bella for which she was in the mix.
We could certainly imagine her as future-seeing vampire Alice Cullen, or Bella’s friend Jessica. The latter role in the Twilight cast, of course, went to another future A-lister in Anna Kendrick.
Lawrence said: “I auditioned for Twilight [and] they turned me down immediately. I didn’t even get a callback. But my life would’ve been totally different. I got Hunger Games I think, like, a year later. When you audition when you’re a run-of-the-mill actor… you just get five pages and they’re like, ‘Act monkey’. When it came out, I was like, ‘Hot damn’.”
Fortunately, Lawrence followed up this disappointment with her Oscar-nominated role in Winter’s Bone and then the lead berth in the Hunger Games cast. Just a few months after the Twilight franchise ended, she won an Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook.
We’d say it all worked out pretty well, even if we were robbed of the chance to see Jennifer Lawrence as a vampire. Hey, there’s always the future. If she decides that one of her new movies should be a female-led Nosferatu remake, we’d be totally sold.
You can check out our No Hard Feelings review to find out more of what we thought about one of her best movies in years, and read our No Hard Feelings director interview for more on Lawrence’s performance. Alternatively, see why Jennifer Lawrence was devastated to miss out on this Disney movie.
Meanwhile, find out why we think the Twilight ending is one of the best movie twists and take a look at everything we know about the Twilight TV series release date. You can also read about how one scene proves Rosalie is the best Twilight character. We did say we were Twilight fans.