galvin schlepp: 'Hunger Games' Stars Jennifer And Josh: How They Met

Well, sort of. 'Are you sure that's when we met?' Hutcherson asks as Lawrence recalls her version of events to MTV News.
By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence
Photo: MTV News

Here at MTV News, we are counting down the days until "The Hunger Games" arrives in theaters. If you've been spending any time with us recently, you know we've been keeping a close eye and ear on all the details about the big-screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins' dystopian best-seller.

Last week, we capped off a month of juicy interviews with stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, for which all the questions were supplied by you, the fans. We're going to keep our coverage rolling with another new chat with Lawrence and Hutcherson, in which they address the hot topics of their first meeting and that infamous "chemistry read."

When MTV News asked the two obvious real-life friends to recall their first meeting, we inadvertently started a playful debate.

"When was the first time we met? I remember it like it was yesterday," Hutcherson joked.

"When was that? You were at a dance-floor something, and I came up to you like, 'What's up?' " Lawrence recalled, making motions with her arms like she approached Hutcherson mid-dance. "I freaked you out, because I started telling you that thing ... "

"Are you sure that's when we met?" Hutcherson chimed in.

"Yeah, at the SAG Awards," Lawrence said. "You were on a dance floor."

"Yeah, the SAG Awards, but we weren't dancing at the SAG Awards," Hutcherson corrected.

The two clearly had differing opinions on the meeting. They went back-and-forth on a few blurry details and couldn't even remember what color dress Lawrence was wearing at the time.

"I met you in a hot-pink dress," Hutcherson said.

"No, I met you in a white dress!" Lawrence countered.

"Same thing!" Hutcherson said with a laugh.

Since that discussion was getting us nowhere, we asked the two about their "chemistry read," the point during the audition process when the two actors read their respective roles together for an audience of filmmakers and studio representatives.

"They had hired Jennifer, and they were trying to find Peeta. I had gone in for the first round of auditions, and a few weeks later, they brought me back," Hutcherson said. "We did a chemistry read and kind of hit it off right away, I felt, for the second time, third time," he joked, playing up the foggy memories of their first meeting. "So that's the first time we got to play the characters together."

"We had tons of chemistry," Lawrence insisted with a laugh. "He was Peeta," she added of her first impressions of Hutcherson as "the boy with the bread." "I had heard the director, I had heard Gary [Ross] say, 'He is the only one who is actually Peeta,' and then [Josh] came in, and he was. He's charming and nice and sweet, like a dog licking your face."

"A dog licking on your face?" Hutcherson asked, wondering if Lawrence was paying him a compliment or not.

"It is! That's what it's like hanging out with you, it's like, 'Eeeeee!' " Lawrence said of her excitement being around the 19-year-old.

So what does Hutcherson think of hanging out with Lawrence? "Like a dog licking your face, but 'Oh, God, get this away,' " he joked. "No, it's hard to get things done when we're together. I'm amazed this interview we've gotten as many questions in as we have. We just start going and end up talking about the most random things."

"We always play off each other," Lawrence added.

"It works," Hutcherson said.

Check out everything we've got on "The Hunger Games."

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