Jennifer Lawrence, ‘Hunger Games’ making strides for women

Among the many things that make “The Hunger Games” special, the most significant may be sex — as in, the sex of its hero, Katniss Everdeen.

Continuing with Friday’s official opening of its much-anticipated finale “Mockingjay — Part 2,” the series is ranked according to most math to be among the top 20 grossing movie franchises of all time — which is a bit misleading: “Hunger Games” has only been around for four movies and three years; “James Bond” has been around for 25 movies and 50 years.

But among all those lucrative franchises (“Harry Potter,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Batman”) the only one with a woman as dominant as Katniss Everdeen is “The Hunger Games.” (Bella Swan? Don’t make us laugh.) And when you consider Jennifer Lawrence’s recent statements regarding Hollywood’s gender pay gap, what you have is a red-hot movie atop a red-hot issue.

“Yes, as it should be,” said Nina Jacobson, who with Jon Kilik has produced all the “Hunger Games” films and is one of the few women to have run a Hollywood studio (Disney, until her unceremonious dismissal in 2006). “Jen has been catapulted to a platform the way Katniss was catapulted. You can choose to be silent or choose to have something to say. She has chosen to have something to say, about something important.”

“Mockingjay — Part 2” finds Katniss still the symbol of defiance and unity for the rebellious districts of Panem, which are resisting the oppressive government of President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland). Snow’s functionaries have brainwashed Katniss’ fellow Hunger Games victor, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) into hating Katniss and trying to kill her. He doesn’t succeed, but Peeta becomes something of a liability as the reluctant Katniss has to balance her duties as a symbol, warrior and friend. And just as Katniss defies every figure of authority in sight, so does “The Hunger Games” defy the rules of Hollywood — about who can be a hero, and who can open a movie.

“The weird thing is, I never even really thought about it,” said director Francis Lawrence, who made the last three “HG” films. “It just happened to be that a woman wrote these books and wrote a bunch of great, powerful characters who were women and we got to cast a bunch of great women to play the parts — Jennifer Lawrence, Jena Malone, Natalie Dormer, Gwendoline Christie, Patina Miller. An amazing group of women.”

“Unfortunately, that’s the way Hollywood works,” Lawrence said. “Suddenly there’s a movie or series that has female leads and suddenly they’ll be like ‘oh maybe we need female leads.” Which is ridiculous. If you have great material and great women, people will go.”

Not only that, said Malone, but they’ll support a movie with such a politically volatile point of view about power, government and society.

“It’s incredibly timely,” said the actress, “and very much about the society we’re in. Suzanne Collins could have written anything. But what’s really interesting is not that she wrote novels like these, but that the society is supporting the novels and supporting the films. And even more important is that society is 80 percent younger people, which makes me so excited to be part of it — it says that this next generation will be revolutionary. That’s the most inspiring part of being a part of this series.”