Jennifer Lawrence struggled to maintain her Russian accent on Red Sparrow set

Jennifer Lawrence found it difficult to perfect her Russian accent for new movie Red Sparrow, because she knew much of the crew from The Hunger Games.
The actress plays a Russian spy in the latest thriller by Francis Lawrence, who also directed the last three instalments of The Hunger Games series. And, although Jennifer tried to maintain her character’s accent while on set, she admitted the company she kept meant the task was much harder than anticipated.
“I tried to stay in the accent, but it’s so hard because I’ve known the crew for so long,” the 27-year-old groaned in an interview with Britain’s Total Film magazine. “So I can’t talk to them in a Russian accent. Next time I do a movie doing an accent, I’m never going to go in and out (of accents) because it makes it so much harder.”
Her latest role brought additional challenges, with Jennifer taking up ballet training as she prepared to play Dominika Egorova, who doubles as a ballerina in the film. The Silver Linings Playbook star also had to get to grips with a hard-hitting script, in which her character becomes a victim of violence and sexual abuse, but she reveals cracking jokes with castmate Joel Edgerton between takes helped get her through filming the toughest scenes.
“Joel and I are very similar. We’d both be joking and talking about something completely different until ‘action,’” the Oscar winner said. “I can’t imagine staying in a head space and not having fun. Otherwise, why would you do it?”
Director Francis agreed, going on to share that Jennifer’s attitude hasn’t changed one bit since she played Katniss Everdeen.
“On the Mockingjay movies, we actually cut a reel together of the moment she switches – because she will be joking and cracking fart jokes right up to the moment you call ‘action’,” he laughed.