Archery in the Hunger Games Movie

The Hunger Games books and movie have been hugely popular and archers are excited to see archery on the big screen. Is archery portrayed realistically in the movie or did the Hunger Games movie producers take short cuts with Katniss’ skills?

Fortunately, it turns out that the archery in the Hunger Games movie is pretty well done and much of that is because the producers cared enough to hire four time Olympian Khatuna Lorig to teach Jennifer Lawrence how to shoot.

When they called me, they told me, ‘We want to make her look like a professional, to shoot like a professional,’ Lorig explained to Hollywood.com. “So, I’m like, ‘Okay, let me give a try. Let me meet the girl,’ [to see] how she looks, physically, and how she does….

“From the beginning, I told her, ‘Listen. If this is going to work, we’re going to do it in a professional way.’ It’s a physical sport—even though I had her with a very light, barely 20-pound or 18-pound Olympic style wooden bow

Lorig told Lancaster Archery’s Christie Colin, “Nobody told me that I was working with a movie star! After I noticed, I was very proud and I told her a couple of times, ‘You are a movie star, OMG.'” Lorig taught Lawrence archery with cameras in mind “I always told her where to put the string on her face to look good for the camera.” Lorig says Lawrence has the skills to become a competitive archer.

The Hunger Games has had a huge impact on the popularity of Archery in the US. USA Archery CEO and three-time Olympian Denise Parker told MSNBC

“It’s been crazy, to be honest…Our clubs are literally being overrun with kids. It’s funny because we used to have issues with how to help clubs promote their programs and get people to come in. Now the clubs are saying, ‘we’re good, we’re full.”