Jennifer Lawrence joked she wanted to strangle new Hunger Games star when they met

Rachel Zegler has recalled her first encounter with The Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence, describing her as “so unbelievably kind”.

Zegler plays Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, a prequel to the original four movies where Lawrence played Katniss Everdeen.

• READ MORE: ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ review: sings a pleasingly familiar tune

Speaking on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Zegler explained that she met Lawrence during Paris Fashion Week this year.

“We were at Paris Fashion Week for the Dior show only a couple weeks ago,” Zegler said. “I didn’t want to be weird. I was just kind of psyching myself up to talk to her. She was so unbelievably kind.”

When a clip showing Zegler and Lawrence at the event is shown on screen, she added: “In that clip, [Jennifer is] actually saying, ‘Let’s do another photo where I’m strangling you and saying you’ll never take my part!’ And that’s exactly what I wanted from her.”

Set 64 years prior to the first film, The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes follows the early years of Coriolanus Snow (originally played by Donald Sutherland) before he becomes the tyrannical leader of Panem. Tom Blyth plays the young Snow, who is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird in the upcoming 10th Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games film producer Nina Jacobson previously explained how any potential return of Lawrence as Katniss would depend on whether original author Suzanne Collins writes a new novel involving the character.

“If Suzanne has something to say, then she’ll write a book about it,” Jacobson told Yahoo Entertainment. “Honestly, as much as I love Katniss, I think her story is complete. And I think that Suzanne feels that her story is complete.

“But if that changes, and Suzanne has something she wants to say, and it involves Katniss, then I would be thrilled. But really any chance to be back in this world, and lead with Francis [Lawrence] and Suzanne, I would take regardless of who it was about.”

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