Make An Argument
Weighing in on the cast of The Hunger Games
By Eric Hughes
May 18, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
I’m two books deep into the Hunger Games trilogy, and what’s become unmistakably clear to me is this: Book one is good, book two is great and, though I’ll get to Mockingjay when I get to it, I certainly feel more invested in the series than, say, where I felt I was at the conclusion of The Girl Who Played with Fire.
Hunger Games surprised me. I went into it without a strong sense of what to expect, and the mystery of what the book might be about worked in its favor. And after reading a string of biography and historical fiction books on my end, The Hunger Games proved to be a mostly right cocktail of adventure and sci-fi to ease me back into reading straight-up fiction again. The Hunger Games is a bit popcorny, but a compelling read nonetheless.
For those of you who haven’t jumped on the series yet, a brief synopsis of the first book would be the following: The Hunger Games, as it were, is a yearly battle in a future North America named Panem in which one male and one female representative from each of the country’s 12 districts enter into a Truman Show-sized arena in a literal fight to the death. The whole thing is broadcast on television, and the rest of the country is forced to watch it (and not always begrudgingly). It’s put on for a few reasons, but mainly to recognize the power of the Capitol in its efforts to stave off another rebellion.
Next March, Lionsgate will distribute the first of three movie adaptations, and we’re at about the point where casting for the first movie is just about over. What I’d like to do here is discuss where Hollywood went with its picks of some of the book’s lead characters, and how those choices relate to the actors I pictured in my head while reading The Hunger Games.
Katniss Everdeen
After dabbling in television work for a couple of years, Jennifer Lawrence caught her big break as Ree Dolly in Winter’s Bone. In case you missed it, you can also catch her in The Beaver, which, finally, combines an estranged Mel Gibson with, you know, hand puppets. Tom Cruise was the studio’s second choice.
Jennifer Lawrence should be good, I mean a) the whole franchise rests on her shoulders and b) she did embark on a super trek after her father in Winter’s Bone, but I couldn’t help but picture Emma Stone while reading the books.
Stone has been busy lately – at least four movies to be released this year, and then on deck is her turn as Gwen Stacy – and maybe it was a question of availability if she was even in the running.
We’re so used to Emma Stone as the good girl, but Zombieland proved she can play tough. She’s also got the right kind of poker face that would’ve been great in the adaptation; she can say so much by doing so little.
Peeta Mellark
Of the five actors I’ll cover here in the column, I want to say Josh Hutcherson is probably my favorite. I first got acquainted with him in The Kids Are All Right, and in the movie Josh plays a quiet teen who seemed to be contending with a number of internal battles. His character was probably the least complex of the bunch, but mostly because he was on screen the least.
To be honest, I struggled with a pick for Peeta. I think a lot of it has to do with young male Hollywood, which to me is slim pickin's. You’ve got your Twilight boys, Zefron, maybe Logan Lerman if The Lightning Thief means anything to you, and that’s basically it.
Josh Hutcherson, though, makes a lot of sense to me, and is probably the only one here I’ll back 100%. He’s got an innocence about him that’ll play off Katniss’ tougher personality, and I like that he isn’t already too much of a name that’ll make his involvement a distraction. Yet that’ll happen if and when Catching Fire gets released. I imagine Josh Hutcherson to be the next Taylor Lautner.
Effie Trinket
Effie Trinket is a tightly wound ball of stress, and from the moment I started getting a feel for her character, I remember thinking how wonderful an Effie Trinket Parker Posey would make. Parker plays bitchy oh so well, and probably the best example of it would be her performance in Best in Show, which did many things for me including immortalizing bears in bee outfits. The role will be played by Elizabeth Banks, so my dreams didn't quite come true here.
Haymitch Abernathy
Woody Harrelson landed the role of Haymitch Abernathy, mentor to Katniss and Peeta in the games. In the book, he’s a huge drunk, and would need to be played by somebody who can act like they’ve been sipping on the juice from morning ‘til night. The books have yet to share Haymitch’s reasons for doing so, but Katniss surmises that it must be all the Hunger Games mentoring that does Haymitch in.
I would have expected the role to go to someone a little older looking than Woody. I say older “looking” because my choice would have been Philip Seymour Hoffman, and he’s 43 – six years younger than Woody.
Caesar Flickerman
Finally, one last Hunger Games role that recently got filled is Stanley Tucci as the games’ schmoozy announcer, Caesar Flickerman. In the books, he’s a real talker, a persuasive one, and keeps things fresh by changing the color of his hair for every games. The role, of course, calls for somebody a bit eccentric, and Stanley Tucci will probably fit the bill quite nicely. I think of his recent work, Stanley may pull from Dill Penderghast in Easy A. Along with Patricia Clarkson, he and Patricia played one of the more ridiculous husband-wife duos I’d seen in awhile.
I think had I been casting the movie, I would have went after John Malkovich. He’s one of Hollywood’s best screwballs – have you seen Red? The Great Buck Howard? Burn After Reading? – and his ability to go from zero to zane is a bit tough to beat.