When Jennifer Lawrence starred in the original Hunger Games movies, she, the cast and filmmakers got to imagine Suzanne Collins’ bestselling novels for the big screen. One especially memorable moment in the first movie is when Katniss Everdeen spins around in one of Cinna’s dress creations and it catches fire. It gives the protagonist her “Girl on Fire” nickname! Now, a talented fan of the series has recreated the dress, pyrotechnics and all!
A talented 23-year-old seamstress has gone viral on her TikTok account to share how she made Katniss’ fire dress. And yes, she even set her creation on fire (safely). Here’s part 1:
@crescentshay ♬ Nothing You Can Take From Me - Karaoke Version - Karaoke All Keys
Don’t try this at home, kids! Shay volunteered as tribute to recreate this beloved moment from The Hunger Games, and it looks quite dangerous. In this first video, which has racked up almost two million views, she showed her process in playing with how to set the dress on fire without flat-out exploding her entire creation. It looks like it took a lot of trial and error! Now look at part 2:
@crescentshay ♬ T-Rex (from the Netflix Film "Nimona") - K.Flay
After figuring out the fire of it all, Shay demonstrated how she went about making Jennifer Lawrence’s dress from the first movie with some gorgeous red material. Ultimately, she was able to replicate the moment from the movie with real fire (sans CGI), and it looks incredible! It even looks like she was wearing some material on her legs to make sure she dodged any burns from the whole affair.
As Shay shared in the video, her parents were actually the ones who helped light her on fire, but made sure to tell anyone watching to not try this at home because there’s so many safety going on behind the scenes that the short video doesn’t delve into. Considering Shay posted the two videos about a month apart, the Girl on Fire project was a big one for her, but wow, the results are worth it!
Shay has recreated all sorts of dresses on her account, including making Cruella’s 20-feet trash dress from the movie starring Emma Stone and recreating gowns from the Met Gala. The TikToker has a bright future in movie costuming considering all the attention to detail she placed in this Hunger Games cosplay!
While Jennifer Lawrence didn’t return for the recent Hunger Games prequel (for timeline reasons), the new star of the franchise Rachel Zegler did pay tribute to the Girl on Fire while walking the red carpet for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes this past fall. Zegler also got to meet Jennifer Lawrence ahead of the movie’s release and even won Action Movie Star of the Year at the People’s Choice Awards this month for her role in the prequel.
If you’re looking to rewatch the original Hunger Games movies, you can check them out now with an AMC+ subscription.
