For JLaw, the game is far from over

LONDON — Besides the usual “no photograph/no autograph/no personal questions” must-be-observed-strictly policy during Hollywood junkets, there was another stern reminder to international journalists gathered here early this week for Lionsgate’s Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 of the franchise based on Suzanne Collins’ trilogy (over 65 million copies in print) that has raked in more than $1.6 billion worldwide so far, still with Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss Everdeen, the lead character that turned her into a superstar overnight.

“No handshaking with Jennifer,” the lady checking the attendance repeated to every journalist who came in. “She’s sick.”

The same no-no applied to the other members of the cast present, including Liam Hemsworth (as Gale Hawthorne), Julianne Moore (President Coin), Sam Claflin (Finnick Odair), Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket), Natalie Dormer (Cressida) and the legendary Donald Sutherland who is awesome in his role as the cool and calculating President Snow. Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark) had called in sick.

But Francis Lawrence (no relation to Jennifer) casually “violated” the rule by offering me his right hand for a warm shake as soon as we sat down for the one-on-one (for TV, aired yesterday in Startalk). Lawrence is on board for the second time (the first was in Hunger Games: Catching Fire last year) and for the third installment (broken into two parts, with the first showing in the Philippines starting on Thursday, Nov. 20, released locally by Pioneer Films, and Part 2 around this time next year). There’s an ebola alert worldwide and I wouldn’t have minded if Francis (I felt that he preferred to be addressed by his first name and not “Direk Francis” or “Mr. Francis” or “Sir Francis”) washed his hand off imagined virus with alcohol but thankfully he did not.

The trilogy continues to set the world on fire. The current installment finds Katniss in District 13 after she shattered the games forever. (You’re a Hunger Games fan and you’re following, aren’t you? So no need for a rehash of what went before, thank you!) Under the leadership of President Coin and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss struggles to save Peeta (who seems to be different here from he was in the first two films, but I’m letting you see for yourself) and a nation moved by her courage.

We watched the movie the night before (a “must,” otherwise, according to still another policy, “no screening, no interview”) and, notwithstanding the debilitating jetlag (from the 18-hour flight from Manila to Dubai [two-hour stopover to change planes] to London on Emirates, perhaps the biggest mechanical “bird” navigating the crowded skies today), I stayed wide-awake throughout the 123 minutes of action that made more thrilling in the post-Games, darker installment. Asked by the junket organizers to write down my comment, I gushed: “Enjoyed the breathtaking joyride; can’t wait to see for Part 2.”

When Jennifer walked into the room at the Corinthia Hotel for the interviews, she dazzled just as she did last year when I first saw her in the flesh, as mesmerizing as she is on glossy magazines and as, uhm, threatening as she is as Katniss Everdeen but actually as meek (even seemingly painfully shy) as a lamb, making you want to hug her and assure her that whatever evil minds do to destroy her, she will be safe and secure in your tight embrace and make her feel that all’s right with the world. Oops! Don’t forget: No handshaking; Jennifer is sick.

She did look it: sick (but thank heavens she got well enough to grace the red carpet at the movie’s premiere the following day). As she turned her back to walk toward the interview room, what was quoted from her in the Production Notes echoed in my mind: I was excited for Katniss to come into her own as a leader, but she’s still a very reluctant hero. In the first movie she wanted to save her family. In the second, she tried to save her friends and herself. Now, she starts to realize the impact she has on the wider world and that she has a choice to lead this battle for what is right.

Although she didn’t feel good enough to finish the series of interviews, the international journalists understood when told that Jennifer had to excuse herself. There was yet another “no-no:” No questions about gossip. (I guess, especially not about reports that she broke up with Nicholas Hoult, with whom she co-starred in the recent X-Men: Days of Future Past, and was dating Chris Martin, the Coldplay frontman and the immediate “ex” of Gwyneth Paltrow.)

In the movie, the games are over but for Jennifer the game of real life goes on as she tries to keep a balance between overnight super-stardom and whatever is left of her privacy that has been intruded into lately by people with cruel intentions (if you know what I mean).

As Katniss, Jennifer faces challenges head-on, unblinking and unmindful of the risks to life and limb. In real life, she’s a bit different. “I retreat,” she admitted with a blush in last year’s Conversation, “and then, depending on what the challenge is, I sometimes face it squarely. But a lot of times, I’m very much a baby when I have problems. I go inside my room, crawl up in bed, and cry and cry.”

One vital question Conversations didn’t get a chance to ask because Jennifer cut short the interviews (no, she wasn’t evading the issue, she was really sick): How did she deal with the aftermath of her nude photos hacked and posted on social media? That question had no “relevance” to the junket (“Limit questions only about the movie,” was the repeated reminder) but I realized there was no need to be redundant by asking Jennifer about it since she had already given Vanity Fair an exclusive interview about it, admitting that she didn’t know how it would affect her career (obviously, it would not and instead made the world sympathize with her).

Jennifer told Vanity Fair that at first she thought of issuing a public apology and every time she started to do it she would cry and cry and get angry, and decided in the end that she didn’t have anything to say sorry for.

Quote-unquote:

I can’t even describe to anybody what it feels like to have my naked body shoot across the world like a news flash against my will. It just makes me feel like a piece of meat that’s being passed around for a profit…

Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this. It does not mean that it comes with the territory. It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world…People forget that we’re human.

Stars are constantly hounded by paparazzi of whom Jennifer said (also in Vanity Fair): You expect paparazzi to be annoying. You don’t expect them to be terrifying.

What happened to Jennifer was terrifying, indeed.

On the way the issue was reported by the media, Jennifer has this to say, It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change.

And this: Anybody who looked at those pictures, you’re perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame…

In the Mockingjay movie, Katniss Everdeen abolished the “games” almost single-handedly. If she were Katniss Everdeen in real life, Jennifer, I’m sure, will put behind bars (or exile them to Panem) those who misuse and/or abuse the social media (which, incidentally, in the movie is mobilized as a means of spreading war propaganda).

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