Hunger Games: Jennifer Lawrence compared to 'Jesus, Joan of Arc and any genius' by co-star Donald Sutherland

The Hunger Games actress’s ever-inflating hype appears to have reached its pinnacle

(Picture: Rex

‘America’s sweetheart’, ‘hilarious’, ‘outspoken’, ‘scorned’ - Jennifer Lawrence has been labelled many things on her way up the Hollywood social ladder.

Now, the actress’s ever-inflating hype appears to have reached its pinnacle - she’s been compared to the Messiah. And Joan of Arc. And also ‘any genius’. No specifics required.

“When I worked with her, I realized the child was a genius,” Donald Sutherland, who stars opposite Lawrence as President Snow in the Hunger Games film franchise, told E!Online.

Josh Hutcherson, Donald Sutherland and Jena Malone in Mockinjay: Part 1

“She's the right person at the right time in the sense of Joan of Arc or Jesus Christ, any genius, in that sense.

Slightly less existentially, he continued: “She has the ability as an actor to tell the truth out of the material and that truth is immediately recognizable with everybody because it hits you in your heart, your solar plexus and your mind.

“And she has the genius of person to be not affected by all of this. She's just a real girl.”

Of course, Lawrence isn’t the only famous person ever to be compared to Jesus Christ. Russell Brand built his entire The Messiah Complex comedy tour around the fact he frequently gets mistaken for the Son of God.

Russell Brand, looking Messianic at an anti-austerity march in June (Getty)

Jared Leto became the subject of several overly flattering memes after debuting an early AD look at the Academy Awards earlier this year.

On a slightly more delusional note, R Kelly compared Chris Brown to Jesus and also Martin Luther King after a series of flagellating run-in with the press following his conviction for assault.

“I only feel sorry for weak people,” he told the Guardian’s G2 supplement. “And mostly what I've come to find is that the weak people are the ones that are the haters.

“The ones that's talking about Chris Brown, or R. Kelly, or anybody that's successful? I feel sorry for them, not Chris Brown, because he's obviously one strong individual to be able to do what he's done.”

Jared Leto compared to Jesus after the Academy Awards in 2014

“He got knocked down a little bit and he climbed up. You know, that sounds like Ali to me. That sounds like Martin Luther King to me.

“That sounds like a lot of the greats that have walked this earth. It even sounds a little bit like Jesus to me.”

Brown had earlier the same year posted an image of Jesus on his Instagram page after a particularly public run-in with Frank Ocean in a parking lot.

“Painting the way I feel today,” he captioned it. “Focus on what matters.”