The cast of MOCKINGJAY PART 2, the latest and final chapter in THE HUNGER GAMES franchise, have been busy promoting the film in Berlin and London this week. Following the premiere in Leicester Square on Thursday complete with a fireworks display, the cast were in high spirits during the press conference at The Corinthia Hotel.
Feeling “buoyant”, Natalie Dormer was joined by Director Francis Lawrence, Producer Nina Jacobson and co-stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Donald Sutherland, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Sam Claflin and Julianne Moore.
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2, quoted by Sutherland as a film “devoid of sentimentality” which “makes no effort to appease an audience, it just tells the truth” follows on immediately from MOCKINGJAY PART 1 after Peeta (Hutcherson) lashes out and attacks Katniss (Lawrence). With Gale (Hemsworth), Finnick (Claflin) and an unstable Peeta by her side, Katniss joins forces with a unit from District 13 as they risk it all to liberate Panem, little knowing that Katniss has plans of her own for President Snow.
Grossing more than $2.2 billion at the global box office, THE HUNGER GAMES has earned its super fans. Many of which waited for days ahead of the films premiere: “They just want to interact with you,” says Dormer. “They’re overwhelmed with being close with some of their favourite characters from screen. I think I speak for all of us – we try to spend as much time as our publicists will physically allow us before hitting the press line, because without them we’re nothing.”
While Hutcherson views the fans as “extremely inspirational and a huge part of this franchise from the beginning,” he was unaware of the impact that the film would have on them: “I had no idea it was going to be like this. The books were obviously successful and we’d seen other books that became movies for young adults that were wildly successful and had crazy fandoms and everything, but I didn’t think about that. I don’t know if it was my own blinders or something, but when I read the books I loved them. There wasn’t even a moment when I thought, if I do this things are going to change.”
In the UK for the first time promoting the film, Harrelson never wanted the franchise to end, he revealed why it has been so special to him: “Any project you do you’re hoping to mildly get along with people, but in this case I really felt like it became family and all of us were really connected during this thing.” He continued, “I also think the project is extraordinary – the books she [author, Suzanne Collins] wrote are amazing and the realisations of those books by Francis.. It’s nice to have a really important message along with the very entertaining film and great friends.”
And speaking of entertaining, Tucci’s Caesar Flickerman was a fun and flamboyant character for the actor to portray, although he found it difficult to admire him “because he’s duplicitous, there’s no moral centre there”: “It was one of the most enjoyable characters I’ve ever played. I looked forward to going back every year. I will miss it, without question, it’s not often you to get to do something that’s so ridiculously theatrical but within the context of the film that are really important.”
As for Moore, the actress only joined the line-up for MOCKINGJAY PART 1 and 2 but praised her cast-mates for making her feel “wonderfully included”: “I came into something that was established with actors that really knew one another, and a group of people, a crew that were working together for a very long time. Everyone was so nice and never made me feel like an outsider, so I think that’s really the most special thing about the experience.”
It’s apparent that the cast are close as Lawrence reflects on an evening in Paris with Dormer and Moore, which Sutherland swiftly points out he didn’t get an invite to. But it wasn’t all fun and games.
The most difficult scene in all the movies for Lawrence was a particularly tense and physically exhausting one involving a sewer tunnel and alien-like creatures known as mutts, and Director Lawrence was faced with the tough task of keeping spirits high: “As a director, I’m in the tunnels as well. The tunnels were claustrophobic, they were dark, everybody had to be hunched over, everybody’s hitting their head, it was a maze.. And it was 12 hours a day of going into a dark set and a dark environment that’s humid and being wet head to toe all day. And so to psychologically have to do my best to keep the morale going was really difficult. I mean, I knew there was an end, so the best I could do was stay efficient, stay positive, as positive as I could, and keep showing them that the end was close. But sometimes you have those tough situations in movies.”
“I think it was probably the only time in the whole shoot when our morale really dropped,” began Dormer with Lawrence continuing, “I had to do a magazine interview after one of those days and I was in a mood! And I was like, I need wine! I don’t remember what magazine it is because I have to block it out for my future and mental sanity, but worst interview I’ve ever given in my life.”
Being the tallest, Hemsworth spent most of his time in the sewer with his head to one side and was left “bruised and banged up”: “It was a very difficult 3 weeks. I think just being completely soaked for 3 weeks and being in clothes is really tough to push through. The thing that helped us was we had each other, but this was probably the least amount of talking that we did for the whole shoot. We were all just so sad by this situation. Yeah, it was strenuous.”
Like Lawrence, Claflin found it to be “the hardest day of filming I’ve ever done in my entire life“: “We were all kind of shaking and hugging each other, mentally because physically no one wants to be near one another. I think we all went to the extreme, went to a place that we’d never been before, challenging ourselves physically and mentally. And equally I have to say hats off to the filmmakers who equally were going through it all with us because it was tough for everybody and it’s so often you forget the people that really make this happen – the guys that in fact built the sewers, poor guys.” Hutcherson remarked, “Yeah, well, also curse them.”
Looking ahead to the film’s cinema release, director Lawrence wants the audience “first and foremost” to find it entertaining: “For me, if people leave the movie and will think before they enter some kind of a conflict, even if the conflict is needed, even if a revolution is needed. I think everybody needs to know that there’s a cost and consequence of things and people will change and it’s something that you can’t tread lightly into.”
Sutherland echoed director Lawrence’s sentiment with a greatly passionate political speech which awarded him a round of applause: “Theres a purpose for everyone involved in this – the actors, the producers, the studios, whatever. And I had a purpose. I had hope that these films, when I read the books and the scripts and when I saw the performances, my hope was that these films would go on and be hearts and souls of young people all over the world and cause them to engage in political endeavour so that they would act to change the status quo because if it stays as it is then we’re dead.” He continued, “If they don’t persuade people to accept climate change, if they don’t stop war, if they don’t recognise war as something that is engaged in for profit – that it’s got nothing to do with King and country or saving the world for democracy, that’s all b*llshit. It’s just about profit and that profit goes to the top ten percent, and the people that are at the bottom.. it’s like Bruce Springsteen said, blind faith in your leaders gets you killed… So my hope is that young people will just organise and get off their rear ends and do something positive.”
As the conference draws to an end, without hesitation, Lawrence classes the film as her favourite in the franchise: “I was so sad when we wrapped these movies. I didn’t feel relieved, I felt upset. I had so much fun making them and then when I saw Mockingjay 2 I was just like, this is perfect. I felt accomplished and satisfied, and I felt so good about what we were putting out and so proud of it that I couldn’t wait for it to get out, and it felt complete. It was closure for me.” Hutcherson adds: “It’s the conclusion. It’s the point where the water boils over and I think that’s really interesting and the place where all the characters have now arrived at, so different from when they started. So as a conclusion I think the fourth film is the most enjoyable to watch.”
With any franchise, hope always remains for a comeback, and as Jacobson explains that she would “sign up” if Collins wanted to put the world to rights, time has been called on The Hunger Games: “Suzanne Collins gave us 3 great books, we were fortunate enough to make 4 movies that I think really do justice to them and, for me, the story feels complete. I feel like we told the story we set out to tell.” She confirms, “but for me I had a handshake with her from the beginning. It will always begin and end there for me, and so if she’s done I’m done.”
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 is released in the UK on November, 19th.
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