Alyson Stoner has revealed they went to a "medical weight loss camp" before auditioning to play Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. The Step Up actor, who uses they/them pronouns, has revealed the extreme lengths they went to to land the coveted action heroine role, which ultimately went to Jennifer Lawrence. "Katniss was characteristically thin - not starving, but small enough to reflect growing up in an underfed district - and muscular from hunting and archery," Stoner wrote in their upcoming memoir, according to an extract published by Vanity Fair. "If I was going to devote myself to checking every box of the character description, I had to commit to strenuous training without fully succumbing to my eating disorder." The former child star acknowledged the role was "a long shot" given their Disney Channel roots, so they signed up for the camp to get into Katniss shape by doing "two weeks of seven hours of daily exercise on a calorie deficit" at the age of 17. "Doctors and trainers should've never permitted an underweight minor to do seven hours of fourteen-mile hikes, heavy lifting, and high-intensity cardio," the Cheaper by the Dozen star continued. "But all I had to say was that I was training for an acting role. They assessed me as mentally stable and opened the door." Stoner, now 31, revealed that they received no feedback on their audition in the room and waited for days to hear if they'd got the role. During this waiting period, the dancer's "body entered starvation mode and screamed for calories", and they went on a binge, and put back on "every single pound" they'd lost at the camp. Soon after, Stoner received the call that they had not been cast as Katniss. Recalling their response, they wrote, "I sat on my bed with vacant eyes and a distant mind. I didn't know what to do with myself." Lawrence played Katniss in all four films of The Hunger Games franchise between 2012 and 2015. Stoner's memoir, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything, will be released on 12 August.