Jennifer Lawrence encouraged her 8.7 million Instagram followers to vote on Election Day by channeling her iconic role as Katniss Everdeen from “The Hunter Games.” The Oscar winner shared a photo of herself giving the series’ trademark three-finger salute on Instagram with the caption: “Midterms [baby]. Don’t forget who burns with us. “Go vote.” Lawrence also included a link to Vote.org where people can search for their nearest polling place.
While Lawrence has refrained from endorsing any candidate, the line “Side with us” comes directly from 2014’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1,” in which Katniss fully embraces her role as a rebel leader against the tyranny of the Capitol (sound familiar?). After a hospital in her community is bombed, an emotional Katniss addresses President Snow directly into the camera, saying: “You can torture us, bomb us, and destroy our districts. But do you see this? The fire is catching. And if we burn, you burn with us!”
Again, Lawrence didn’t directly throw shade at Donald Trump, but fans came to the same conclusion given the symbolic nature of the “Side with us” line from the “Hunger Games” franchise (and the deep ties between Snow and Trump). Lawrence has been quite outspoken against Trump during his first administration as US president; specifically, in a column he wrote after Election Day, he declared that Trump’s victory meant “the only people who feel safe.” [in America]They are white men whose rights are recognized and respected.
But Lawrence appeared to change course on getting into politics in media interviews last year when she told The New York Times at the “Die My Love” press tour that she was no longer sure she should talk about Trump and politics.
“As we’ve learned, election after election, celebrities make no difference in who people vote for. So what am I doing? I’m just sharing my opinion on something that will fuel the fire that will tear the country apart. We’re so divided,” Lawrence explained at the time.
He added: “I think I’m in a complicated recalibration because I’m an artist myself. With this heat and the way things are going, I don’t want to start shutting people off to movies and art that can change their consciousness or change the world because they don’t like my political views. I want to preserve my craft so that you can get lost in what I do. And if I can’t say something that will bring down some kind of peace or warmth or express some kind of anger. I don’t want to be part of the problem, I don’t want to make the problem worse… I don’t want to be a part of the problem, I don’t want to make it worse… You watch these players’ faces and then half the internet doesn’t want to see their faces anymore, I feel so bad for these people and it feels so wrong.
Lawrence has since steered clear of political talk in interviews, although he encouraged people to vote on Election Day. The decision to bring Katniss to the channel comes ahead of her reprising the role in this month’s prequel “The Hunger Games: Sunrise in the Harvest.”
“It was incredible,” Lawrence said of the Katniss revival 11 years later on the “Call Her Father” podcast last month. “It was so crazy. It was the same team. It was the same AD I’d worked with a million times because I loved him. And with Josh [Hutcherson] and Woody [Harrelson] …it was very emotional. Josh and I didn’t walk to the bathroom without wrapping our arms around each other. It was beautiful. And obviously Woody came in through my hotel room window uninvited. It wouldn’t be the same if he listened to the boundaries or used the door.”
“The Hunger Games: Harvest Sunrise” will be released in theaters on November 20 from Lionsgate.