1st look at Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games

Let the "whitewash Nazis" begin their cry of outrage.  The cover of Entertainment Weekly's upcoming issue has the first glimpse of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Gary Ross's adaptation of Suzanne Collins' ridiculously hot trilogy of novels. Check it out below, followed by a few comments...

When Lawrence was first cast as the "olive skinned" Katniss, there was a cry from folks who looked for every possible fault they could imagine. Some I can agree with, like she was a tad too old and maybe a touch too pretty. Others derided the pick because she's too white for the role, which to me is absurd given Katniss's indeterminate race. For me, this image quiets the issues I had. Lawrence is a beautiful woman, with long flowing blonde hair. All of that has been tempered enough to allow her tougher features to come through, similar to how she was in Winter's Bone. Attractive, but not conventionally so. I'm digging the jacket, the mockingjay pin, and there are her trusty quiver of arrows as well. I'm sold. Now they can commence selling me on Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, because after reading the book I don't see it working.

While there will be an extensive interview when the issue appears, as well as more images, one bit that EW released is cool because it features Lawrence describing her time during awards season and how it parallels the whirlwind of make overs Katniss had to endure in The Hunger Games...

“He was asking me what the experience was like,” she recalls, “and I just kind of opened up and said, ‘I feel like a rag doll. I have hair and makeup people coming to my house every day and putting me in new, uncomfortable, weird dresses and expensive shoes, and I just shut down and raise my arms up for them to get the dress on, and pout my lips when they need to put the lipstick on.’ And we both started laughing because that’s exactly what it’s like for Katniss in the Capitol. She was a girl who’s all of a sudden being introduced to fame. I know what that feels like to have all this flurry around you and feel like, ‘Oh, no, I don’t belong here.’”