IR Interview: Tom Blyth For ”The Hunger Games - The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” [Lionsgate] - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Actor Tom Blyth talks about truth vs. loyalty, perspective within legacy and the physicality informing emotionality in regards to the new prequel from Lionsgate: "The Hunger Games - The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes".

Transcript

00:00 [SCREAMING]

00:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04 Mr. Snow, let me ask you one final time.

00:23 What are the Hunger Games for?

00:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:28 (SINGING) I'm gonna hang into you.

00:31 It's the things we love most that destroy us.

00:42 We talked about this, I think, with Billy, too,

00:44 is the aspect of what trust and loyalty

00:47 mean in a certain world.

00:49 Could you talk about those sort of elements of him?

00:52 Because it depends where he is in the story.

00:55 Yeah.

00:56 Yeah, that's a really profound question, I think,

00:58 because it is at the heart of the story

01:00 and is at the heart of Corey Lainis' track

01:03 and kind of like his passage through the film.

01:06 I think trust is like the big question for him, really.

01:09 And it's whether or not he's willing to give up

01:12 control in favor of trust.

01:15 And Lucy Gray is basically saying,

01:18 as long as you're truthful, as long as you're honest,

01:20 as long as you live freely, you can trust people.

01:23 You can trust others and trust that they will do the same.

01:26 But he innately doesn't have trust

01:28 because of what he's been through in the Capitol,

01:29 because of losing his father,

01:31 because of losing his father to the district specifically,

01:34 and because of what he's been taught.

01:36 Like, you know, he's been taught not to trust.

01:38 And I think that is one of the core questions in the film

01:42 and in the book that Suzanne wrote.

01:44 It's this kind of idea of, like,

01:47 if you're taught from a young age

01:48 to distrust someone who is other than you,

01:51 what does that leave you with?

01:52 It leaves you with this feeling of, like,

01:54 other means bad, other means dangerous.

01:56 Other should be controlled.

01:58 And so Lucy Gray throughout the film tries to teach him

02:00 that he can trust something that is strange to him.

02:03 He doesn't have to innately fear or hate it.

02:06 And he tries, like, he really,

02:07 I think he tries through her.

02:09 But really the question you're left with

02:10 at the end of the film is, like,

02:12 is it too deeply baked into his being

02:14 to be able to get out of it?

02:16 And I think it's up to audiences

02:18 to walk away with that question themselves,

02:21 that answer, you know?

02:22 What are the Hunger Games for?

02:25 ♪ Are you, are you ♪

02:29 ♪ Coming to the truth ♪

02:32 The Hunger Games, they're to punish the districts.

02:38 Those tributes don't have a choice.

02:40 Your role is to turn these children into spectacles,

02:45 not survivors.

02:46 ♪ So we both feel free ♪

02:50 We're alive!

02:52 Smile, that's why we have teeth.

02:54 Imagine it was your name that they called.

02:58 ♪ Strange things do happen here ♪

03:01 I just wanna know that somebody still cared about me,

03:04 that I was still of value.

03:05 Welcome to the Capitol.

03:08 You look like you shouldn't be here.

03:09 I shouldn't, but I'm your mentor.

03:12 A rebel.

03:13 Well, Hessia also goes to, like, perspective and perception,

03:16 how he wants to perceive how he sees the world,

03:19 but how he thinks Lucy sees the world

03:22 and how she's perceived going in as, you know,

03:24 obviously a tribute.

03:26 Could you sort of talk about perspective and perception

03:28 in his world?

03:29 Because when he's inside, you know,

03:31 the watching them on the field versus on the ground

03:34 is two different things, of course.

03:36 - Yeah, I mean, well, he's grown up in a world

03:38 where perception is everything.

03:39 Like, how you're perceived is, you know,

03:43 like, absolutely tantamount

03:45 to how you will succeed in the world.

03:48 And he believes that to succeed in the world

03:50 and to, like, put food on the table for Tigris

03:53 and his grandmom, to do that,

03:55 he has to be perceived as powerful, strong,

03:57 in control, in power,

03:59 and he has to be in a position of power to do that.

04:01 And then he meets Lucy Gray, who tries to undo that

04:04 and says, "You can go live in a field and be happy.

04:06 "Like, you can go live in a shed,

04:08 "and as long as you've got food and loved ones,

04:10 "you can find happiness."

04:12 And I think what's kind of really fun about the film

04:15 is watching someone who,

04:16 even though you know how they end up,

04:18 you get to, like, root for him through the film

04:20 and say, like, "Oh, man, I really hope this guy

04:22 "learns to find happiness.

04:23 "I really hope he learns the true meaning of life

04:26 "through Lucy Gray and kind of be heartbroken

04:29 "when he maybe doesn't land there."

04:32 But yeah, like, I think the whole, like,

04:35 the whole capital, like, visual

04:37 and the whole thing that people love

04:38 about "The Hunger Games" and the capital itself

04:40 is, like, this idea of perception

04:42 and all the costumes and the trinkets

04:43 and how people, the things people use

04:46 to kind of hide their true selves,

04:48 which I think people see in society today, right,

04:50 is, like, you know, everything down to fashion

04:52 and how you present yourself is often, like,

04:56 a wall to protect yourself

04:58 from the outside world a little bit.

05:01 It's a very human thing, I think.

05:03 - That girl's not gonna win these games.

05:05 You saw her.

05:06 She's underfed, unstable.

05:08 - The dean said it's not just about winning.

05:10 - Everything is about winning.

05:12 If not the games now, then the crowd.

05:15 Lucy Gray won't survive a minute inside that arena.

05:19 So that means we have to make every second

05:20 before then count.

05:21 I'll get her to sing again.

05:25 - I wouldn't sing a note for you if I was her.

05:27 I wouldn't do anything at all, unless I could trust you.

05:31 - She's district, Tigress.

05:33 She knows we hate her and she wants us dead.

05:35 How am I supposed to get her to trust me?

05:37 - Imagine it was your name that they pulled

05:40 and you had been ripped from your home.

05:42 I just wanna know that somebody

05:43 still cared about me out here.

05:46 - Don't discount her just because she's district, Corey.

05:49 You might have more in common with her than you think.

05:52 - How physicality informs the emotionality

05:57 and back and forth.

05:57 You see his transformation,

05:59 but you also see when his mind is working.

06:02 Can you talk about that primality of him in a way?

06:06 'Cause the brain's working against

06:07 the actual instinct at times.

06:09 - Yeah, there's a passage in the book

06:11 that Suzanne Collins writes where she says

06:12 that he's the best in his class in the Capitol

06:15 at anything he does,

06:16 whether it's the physical or the mental.

06:18 But I think he almost thinks of the physical side

06:21 of himself as too primal.

06:24 It's not controlled, it's not poised.

06:27 It's not like, I don't know, he's like a cobra, right?

06:30 That's always watching and ready to snap.

06:33 But I think he thinks that to snap

06:35 is to lose control, right?

06:36 So I think it's really fun to play someone

06:39 who is so tightly wound and so protective

06:42 of their own perception that when something does happen,

06:46 such as when he's in the arena and has to defend himself,

06:49 or later on when he's in District 12

06:51 and certain things happen,

06:53 it's really fun to play someone who is like,

06:55 who breaks through that mold that they've made

06:58 for themselves and kind of loses control.

07:01 As an actor, it's just fun to play

07:03 with someone's expectations and then explode through them.

07:10 - Fueled with the terror of becoming prey.

07:12 See how quickly we become predator.

07:16 I want my enemies to see a rainbow of destruction

07:21 engulfing the world.

07:24 - You're monsters!

07:27 All of you!

07:28 - Good luck with that poor little songbird.

07:32 - Where is she?

07:33 - It's a mystery.

07:39 And mysteries have a way of driving people mad.

07:43 (screaming)

07:45 (dramatic music)

07:48 (dramatic music)

07:51 (dramatic music)

IR Interview: Tom Blyth For ”The Hunger Games - The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” [Lionsgate]

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