Hunger Gamesstar Jennifer Lawrence owns her own bow and arrow, the 22-year-old tells Vanity Fair contributing editor Jim Windolf in our February-issue cover story. “One time I actually used it for defense. I pulled into my garage and I heard men in my house. And I was like, 'I'm not letting them take my stuff. I had just gotten back from training, so I had the bow and arrows in the back of my car. I went to my car and I put this quiver on me and I had my bow and I loaded it and I'm walking up the stairs. And I look, and my patio doors were open, and there were guys working right there, and I was like, 'Heyyy, how you doin'?'" Lawrence's friends were disappointed by the anticlimactic outcome of the event, the actress tells Windolf: "They were like, 'We've got to stage someone to break into your house and you can kill them!' That would be the funniest news ever. Katniss Everdeen actually kills someone with a bow and arrow!"

Jennifer Lawrence. Click to enlarge., Photo by Ellen Von Unwerth. Styled by Jessica Diehl.

At 22, Lawrence is the rare celebrity who sounds more like a human being than a well-coached product. Lawrence, who did not go to high school and describes herself as “vastly uneducated” but reads Anna Karenina on her days off, talks to Windolf about subjects as varied and intimate as crying to her mother, having the money but not the maturity to buy a house, and getting “slaughtered” on the red carpet. This is not, Windolf reports, a girl who is afraid to put it all out there, or bite the hand that feeds her. “Not to sound rude, but [acting] is stupid,” Lawrence says. “Everybody’s like, ‘How can you remain with a level head?’ And I’m like, ‘Why would I ever get cocky? I’m not saving anybody’s life. There are doctors who save lives and firemen who run into burning buildings. I’m making movies. It’s stupid.’” Still, Lawrence is wowed by her acting idols. “Once I’m obsessed with somebody, I’m terrified of them instantly. I’m not scared ofthem—I’m scared of me and how I will react,” she tells Windolf. “Like, for instance, one time someone was introducing me to Bill Maher, and I saw Meryl Streep walk into the room, and I literally put my hand right in Bill Maher’s face and said, ‘Not now, Bill!,’ and I just stared at Meryl Streep.” So, Windolf asks, did she meet Meryl Streep? “Of course not. I just creepily stared at her.”