Like Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth had a great relationship with Josh Hutcherson. The two would be rivals in the
film, but not in real life. Hemsworth says, “I was friends with him before this, and he’s a great actor. He’s one of
the smartest people I’ve ever met, too. Honestly, I’ll listen to him talk sometimes and it’s like I feel he could
lead us into a battle, and I’d follow him. He’s that persuasive.”
Gale carries a crying Prim (Willow Shields) away from the reaping. He promises Katniss that he’ll look out for her
family while she’s gone.
Jacobson also noticed their chemistry. “We sent the two guys into training and they got really into it, really gonzo.
They got to be very good friends during the training process.”
With the three central characters cast, Ross moved toward casting the key adult supporting roles.
Elizabeth Banks, an actress known for her roles in the Spider-Man trilogy, Seabiscuit, and 30 Rock, was immediately
interested. She says, “I called everyone I knew the minute I heard they were making a movie of it. Gary and I worked
together on Seabiscuit, so when he got the directing job I sent him a little e-mail like, ‘Just so you know, I’ll
totally play Effie!’ It was a dream of mine from the get-go.”
Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) holds the microphone for Katniss onstage at the reaping.
Ross had a dual vision for the role of Effie Trinket, Katniss’s escort to the Capitol, and not just anyone would be
able to pull it off. “We wanted an actress who could have the comedic chops,” explains Jacobson, “but also the
dramatic undertones. Somebody who could do a lot with a little, because there’s a version of Effie that could be very
over-the-top, very distracting. The person needs to be ridiculous in some ways and yet have a reality to her. Elizabeth
Banks, we felt, brought all of that to the table.”
And Banks was not the only actor actively pursuing a part in the film. Film legend Donald Sutherland, a fixture in
movies and on television for the better part of six decades, wrote a letter to his agent and Lionsgate indicating that
he’d like to play Panem’s President Snow. “Though the part that I play is, in the first book, small, the film can be
so significant in reaching young people and teaching them how to deal with the oligarchy of the privileged, the hegemony
of capitalism, it is a revolutionary piece of work. I’m thrilled with it.” Plus, “I wanted to work with Gary Ross,”
continues Sutherland. “He’s a brilliant, brilliant writer and, working with him, you discover that he’s a perfect
director.”
President Snow (Donald Sutherland), the leader of Panem.
Executive producer Robin Bissell says, “Gary was like, ‘Okay . . . you know it’s just a couple of days. It’s not
that much — you do a speech and that’s it.’ But Donald said, ‘No, I really want to do it.’ I think he knew that
this character becomes the embodiment of the Capitol, and he saw what he could do with it. Donald came in toward the end
of shooting and he wrote another letter to Gary afterward — he had some ideas and very eloquent thoughts on President
Snow. Immediately after Gary read the letter, he said, ‘I have ideas for two more scenes’— scenes between Snow and
Seneca Crane. Seneca isn’t thinking about the ultimate reason for the Games. For him, it’s about ratings, it’s about
showbiz. But Snow never loses sight of what the Games are about. So . . . Donald Sutherland brought a great deal to this
part.”
Gary Ross remembers it like this: “So, we’re shooting in the woods by the edge of this lake, and I read this e-mail
from Donald and I was just knocked out. I went down by the lake and there was one folding chair sitting in this little
clearing, and I thought, Well, okay — this is a sign. Clearly I’m going to sit in this chair. So I went over, I sat
down, and I came up with these two scenes for Snow, which I think are really pivotal in the movie, and define him in a
great way.”
Ross and the producers sought out actors they thought were right for other parts, particularly Haymitch Abernathy, the
only living victor from District 12, and Cinna, Katniss’s brilliant stylist.
Of Haymitch, Jacobson explains, “We wanted a character who felt like he’d seen it all and experienced it all and had
that weariness, on the one hand, but also that subversive, fiery unpredictability. We wanted somebody who could play the
drunk without being really obvious about it, who could play that sort of broken clown, but really had the intelligence
and the foresight and the strategy to get these two characters through these Games alive.”
Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) raises a glass while on board the train to the Capitol.
“We approached Woody Harrelson,” continues Bissell. Harrelson’s breakthrough role had been in the television series
Cheers, and he’d gone on to earn two Oscar? nominations for his work in the films The Messenger and The People vs.
Larry Flynt. “Woody loves Gary, really wanted to work with Gary. So he read the books, he read the script, and then he
said, ‘I get it. I have to do this movie.’”
When it came time to cast Cinna, the producers approached the gifted musician and singer-songwriter Lenny Kravitz.
“Lenny as Cinna was an idea that Gary had very early on,” says producer Jon Kilik. “He wanted Cinna to be not only a
stylist but somebody who has a lot of style. And nobody in this world has more style, more charm, more charisma than
Lenny Kravitz.”
Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) in his signature plain black shirt.
Kravitz, who had just appeared in the Oscar?-nominated film Precious, was delighted to join the team. “Gary Ross called
me while I was in the studio recording my album, and said, ‘I’m doing this movie, The Hunger Games. I’d like you to
play the part of Cinna. And if you want the part, you’ve got it. You don’t have to audition.’ That was quite an
amazing phone call, because I’ve only made a couple of films — it was just beautiful to get a role like that,”
Kravitz says.