Selected Answers from ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ LA Press Conference Desde Hollywood was present at the Los Angeles press conference of ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ (in theaters & IMAX everywhere Nov. 22). Questions weren’t that great, but the actors and filmmakers had very interesting things to say about the movie, the future of the franchise and its social impact. Jennifer Lawrence I think it’s a wonderful message to show just how powerful one voice can be. It’s very easy as a society for us to just kind of follow the feet in front of us, and history does repeat itself – and I think that it’s an important message for our younger generation to see how important they are in shaping our society and our future. In our society we have been completely desensitized in our shock-factor and our media continues to feed what you want and this is an example of what happens when you start feeling entitled to things that you are simply not. It is a great message for young adults that you don’t have to follow the feed in front of you. Even one voice standing up against something that is wrong can keep us from going into a totalitarian government. So many wonderful things can come from this, when you have a voice, saying the right things. It takes me 10 minutes to sign a hundred posters that can raise thousands of dollars for charity, and it’s so simple. On the first movie, there was a girl who was an extra, and she was covered in scars – she had been burned. And she came up to me and said that she was too self-conscious to go to school when she was younger. And then when she read ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Catching Fire,’ she was proud of her scars and her friends called her the ‘girl on fire. I remember crying and calling my mom – I can’t really still remember the story without tearing up. And I said to my mom ‘I kind of get it’. Donald Sutherland For me it was essential to find a way to be part of this. Because it more clearly represents the dangers of an oligarchy of the privileged than anything else that I have seen in a long, long time. Jeffrey Wright The politics for the people in the movie are really simply: home, family, security, and love. Universal themes that we all can identify with. Young people should be political, but from very grounded principles and not a reactive place. Jena Malone My character is hardcore and truthful and violent and angry. I don’t think that’s like a badass thing, I think it’s a survival technique. That’s a really interesting thing for young women to talk about and understand. That they can take on tools and personality traits that may not be their own but they can use them in forms of survival – to elevate in the world. Francis Lawrence I knew very early on that the arena in this was a place that would have to be really figured out. It’s a place that doesn’t exist anywhere in the world and so we were going to have to build part of it and shoot in different parts of different locations. We ended up building the island and the cornucopia in Atlanta and unfortunately in 40 degree water. I always take those kind of moments in filmmaking as a really fun challenge. The fun thing about “Mockingjay” is that we actually get to see the Capitol in a very new way. We’ll actually be down in sort of the middle of the streets of the Capitol which will be fantastic. But we worked with the production design team to make sure there was an aesthetic unity all the way through. “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire begins as Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark (played by Josh Hutcherson). Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) – a competition that could change Panem forever.” The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is out in theaters November 22.
