Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth & ‘Hunger Games’ Cast on How Prequel Differs From Original Films | THR News Video - video Dailymotion

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Get ready to return to Panem in 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes'. Stars Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Josh Andrés Rivera and Hunter Schafer spoke to The Hollywood Reporter's Tiffany Taylor all about their roles in the prequel film and shed some light on just how this movie differs from 'The Hunger Games' films released from 2012 to 2015 that fans know and love. The film hits theaters Nov. 17.

Transcript

00:00What excites me the most is seeing how they've interpreted the history of Panem,

00:04because obviously it's not a real world. It's a world that has been made up by Suzanne Collins'

00:08brain. Get ready to return to Panem in The Hunger Games' The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

00:14The prequel story is set during the 10th annual Hunger Games, 64 years before the events of the

00:19original book trilogy and subsequent film series. The cast of the new film spoke to The Hollywood

00:24Reporter all about their roles and shed some light on just how this movie differs from The

00:28Hunger Games films released from 2012 to 2015 that fans know and love. Star Rachel Zegler has

00:34admitted that she was a big fan of the original movies. In this new film, she plays Lucy Gray

00:39Bayard, the girl tribute from District 12 chosen to compete in the 10th annual games.

00:44How do you think your knowledge of this world informed your portrayal of Lucy Gray and helped

00:48you play her? That's a great question. It's so awesome to have a deep knowledge of the universe

00:54that you're in. And also, it's fun to then dial it back. I think you've said rewind the tape a bit

01:01and then get to really get into the meat and potatoes of how it came to be. And Suzanne gave

01:08us such great source material with our book. And so I felt so at home getting to step into the world

01:15of Panem and getting to do all of that. And also just the fan in me was just giddy the entire time.

01:22Zegler's Lucy Gray is mentored in the story by none other than young Coriolanus Snow,

01:27who fans know goes on to become the tyrannical president of Panem.

01:30This is a villain origin story. And when we see Coriolanus cross that line into evil,

01:36he never really comes back from it. How did you go about portraying that gradual descent

01:41into darkness? I actually, I kind of went through a process of starting afresh with him,

01:46which is what the book does as well. You know, it forgets all the stuff that happens later on in his

01:50story and really rewinds history on the universe of Panem and says, you know, where did he come

01:56from? Why is he the way he is? And I got to kind of like really dissect him psychologically,

02:02which I love doing with characters. And to do that, I kind of, the film is broken up into three

02:07acts, really, three major acts. And I kind of broke up Coriolanus's progression into three acts as well.

02:14And kind of, he's like Corio, the boy at 18. And then he's Coriolanus, the man in the middle act

02:19or becoming a man. And then Coriolanus Snow, future president to be in the third act. And by the

02:25third one, by the end, you're like, kind of as an audience member, you're like, hope, I hope people

02:29are like, just like, like scratching at their eyeballs being like, no, don't go down that path,

02:34even though we all know he's going to, because we've seen what happens. And hopefully, like, even though we

02:39know where it goes, you're still kind of like desperate for him not to do it and not to,

02:43not to go off the deep end in a dark way. Just as fans of the franchise know what becomes of

02:47Coriolanus Snow, they also know that Pan Am looks much different in this new prequel than it does

02:52in the first film starring Jennifer Lawrence, which is set during the 74th iteration of the games.

02:56What difference between the two versions of Pan Am that we now get to see struck you the most?

03:02The show about it, you know, like how it's such, it's just making a big show out of the Hunger Games

03:08themselves and how we go from Lucky Flickerman, the meteorologist on Capitol News, you know,

03:14covering, covering them falling into the zoo and then becoming the host of the Hunger Games to then

03:1864 years into the future, Cesar Flickerman has his own talk show and is basically doing late night

03:24to interview them all and they get all done in hair and makeup to, it's just crazy to me because I know

03:30that, you know, it was, it wasn't like that at first.

03:33I like that, uh, the media spectacle of it all had not been polished in the, in, in this story

03:42and about a Songbirds and Snakes because that, I think, uh, finding reasons for people to watch

03:47the games is still a project underway and everybody's bouncing all these ideas like we need to make this

03:53more of a spectacle. And Snow is ultimately the one who, you know, puts his hat in the ring and,

03:59and kind of invents what we see in the original trilogy.

04:03On a more aesthetic level, um, and like as a sci-fi geek, I think it was really interesting the way,

04:10um, I mean, because the Capitol that we know in the original, uh, trilogy is kind of so like,

04:17um, polished and really like high future. Uh, and this was, it was such a fun kind of take on like

04:27what it, what the future would be, but with like a twinge of like past flavor. Um, and, uh, I don't

04:37know. I think like the DP and the, the people who were in charge of like building that visual world

04:42that like killed it. It was so, it was so much fun. Our designers, um, and Francis came up with an

04:48amazing world that is like almost 1950s-esque, uh, aesthetically, but also with all like the

04:54technology that we know Panem has. Um, and you know, we'd be on set and you're like, you almost

05:00feel like you're in a period film, like in a period movie while also being in a futuristic dystopian

05:05movie at the same time. Um, and just in terms of your imagination as an actor, it's so rich. Um,

05:10you know, you've got like 1950s looking cars driving past you and people in like long trench

05:14coats and gowns, but it's all electric. Um, and there were drones flying around and stuff and

05:20everything was real. We were on location the whole time, no green screens in sight. So it was all built

05:25by the design team, um, and all very tangible. The Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

05:30flies into theaters in the U.S. on November 17th. For more on the film, go to THR.com. For The

05:36Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.

Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth & ‘Hunger Games’ Cast on How Prequel Differs From Original Films | THR News Video

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