When The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 came out last year, the biggest surprise in the film wasn’t a plot twist but a song. In a pivotal scene, Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, sings the haunting “The Hanging Tree.†Despite her discomfort with singing, Lawrence herself performed the song, and the single was a surprise smash, charting as high as 12 on Billboard’s Hot 100. While there hasn’t been any official announcement of a soundtrack for the final film, when the credits roll on the final Hunger Games film, Mockingjay — Part 2, you’ll hear Jennifer Lawrence’s voice again, singing “Deep in the Meadow,†which you might remember as “Rue’s Lullaby†from the first film. How did director Francis Lawrence convince the younger, more famous Lawrence to sing again?
“I coaxed her to sing another song,†Lawrence told Vulture Wednesday night at the New York premiere of the film. “So ‘The Hanging Tree’ was on film; it was in front of a lot of people, and she was going to have to do it all day because we were shooting that scene all day long. That drove her crazy,†said Lawrence. “This time around, I knew it was going to be a tender subject — I knew she would do it, but I knew it was going to be tender. But I said, ‘Listen, it can just be you and me. We’ll go into an ADR booth and clear the room, sit on the floor, turn the lights down. So it’ll just be you and me.’†An intimate recording session gave us “Deep in the Meadow.†Now we’ll just have to wait and see if J.Law can get another pop hit out of it.