Jennifer Lawrence Says She Refused to Diet for The Hunger Games , Encourages Body Positivity

Murray Close/Color Force/Lionsgate/Kobal/Shutterstock Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games franchise

Jennifer Lawrence looked back on her time as the lead of the hit film The Hunger Games.

During a chat with Viola Davis for Variety's Actors on Actors issue, the Causeway star said there was a "conversation" about how much weight she planned to lose for the 2012 action movie.

Lawrence, 32, added that she was adamant about not dieting and talked about the effect it could have on young children watching the movie.

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"Along with me being young and growing and not able to be on a diet, I don't know if I want all of the girls who are going to dress up as Katniss to feel like they can't because they're not a certain weight," Lawrence said. "And I can't let that seep into my brain either."

She has echoed this sentiment before.

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In 2013, Lawrence told the BBC it was important to promote a positive body image when she played Katniss Everdeen.

Everdeen, who is selected to fight or die trying for District 12, was likely underfed and would have been "incredibly thin," Lawrence said at the time.

"But, I just kept saying, 'We have the ability to control this image that young girls are going to be seeing,' " she said.

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Lawrence, who welcomed her first baby, son Cy, with husband Cooke Maroney earlier this year, is known for not dieting.

"I do exercise! But I don't diet," she told Glamour in 2012. "You can't work when you're hungry, you know?"