It has been, as the panelists mention several times, five years since filming commenced on the first Hunger Games film and with the end in sight, the films’ creators and stars have reached the bittersweet moment where they prepare to both say goodbye to the franchise and to show off the series’ most heart-rending sequences as long simmering war erupts in Panem.
Armed is the last thing on anyone’s minds in sunny San Diego as series star Jennifer Lawrence, draped in a willowy black wrap, and co-stars Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson hold court at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel along with director Francis Lawrence (who has helmed every iteration since taking over from The Hunger Games director Gary Ross in 2013), producer Nina Jacobson and actress Willow Shields to talk about The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.
Q: This film will finally bring us the climax of the conflict with President Snow (played by Donald Sutherland) in a big way, both in the form of the war that’s been talked about, but also in retribution for terrible things, which is a big theme in the Hunger Games books. Was that on your minds when you were making the film? How did you deal with it, especially for a young audience?
Jennifer Lawrence: I hope a young audience will walk away from it thinking, thinking about war. The whole movie is about the consequences of war and we want to inspire people to think about that, about what it means.
Josh Hutcherson: Yeah, of how bad things have to get to go to war and how easy those first steps are which lead you inevitably down that path.
Francis Lawrence: It’s very confusing and complex and really grey. It addresses how it’s never an easy decision if [war] is needed or not.
Nina Jacobson: Once you disrupt the story the establishment wants, change becomes possible if people want to pursue it. In the first movie, the Capital has complete control over the media, and over the course of the revolution who is in control of the media and what they do with it becomes enormously important to the outcome. Only through the pursuit of truth do our characters create change, but it doesn’t come easily and audiences really understand.
Q: And how have the characters changed, now that you’re on the other side and can look back at the series from the end? Or you yourselves?
Willow Shields: For me, I started when I was 10 and didn’t know how to form a sentence and I was missing some teeth …
Jacobson: That’s true, you hadn’t even had them all come in.
Liam Hemsworth: I could carry you around like a baby.
Shields: So it was a strange experience to make it every year, but the evolution of Prim was amazing to read in the books and to try to portray as best as I can. She really grows up a lot and is really there for Katniss in the last two films.
Hemsworth: Whereas Gale is focused less on Katniss and is more about winning the war. A lot have things have happened to make him emotional and strong-willed and his biggest drive is to take the Capital … he’s a bit of a ticking time bomb. He and Katniss have developed very different views about what’s acceptable and what’s right and wrong. It was a great journey to take after the last few movies of sitting on the sidelines. Now he can get in and start getting some of his own back.
J. Lawrence: For Katniss for a long time her life was about survival. There wasn’t a believable hope of revolution at the start of the story, she was just trying to save people she loved, but waking up in District 13 changed things and she kind of grows into her position and takes control of her destiny. That’s something I really love about the second movie, that’s when she takes power and decides she does want to be the Mockingjay.
Jacobson: And that there is a difference between being a warrior and being a symbol of the revolution. She might give up being the Mockingjay, but not being a revolutionary.
J. Lawrence: Exactly.
Q: Like you said, it’s been five years and one of the biggest things in your lives over those years. How are you coping with the end of that?
Shields: Do you want to make us cry? Everyone keeps saying final.
Hemsworth: For all of us it was emotional for this to come to an end. We’ve made good friends.
J. Lawrence: We’re [Liam and Josh] best friends and see each other all the time – we just go to Josh’s house in Malibu and drink wine and watch reality TV – but I do miss acting with them. We can’t even make eye contact without laughing and that’s not a problem I’ve had with other actors.
Hutcherson: She makes other people around her feel free to just act out and be themselves. [At which point Lawrence begins running hands all over Hutcherson’s face]. Your hands smell weird.
Hemsworth: I do not watch reality TV.
J. Lawrence: You do!
Hemsworth: One episode once. I think of the person I was then and the person I am now and we’ve all grown so much. It’s a crazy world to be thrown into and be part of and grow up in.
J. Lawrence: I can’t tell Lenny Kravitz apart from his character. They’re the same person.
Q: Speaking of big changes from when you started on this five years ago, do you think the series’ success has opened up more opportunities for women-led franchises going forward? Do you think opportunities in Hollywood in general are getting better?
J. Lawrence: I would hope so. Well, that’s risky, Jennifer. I’m starting this new thing of trying to develop a filter. Right now I’m dancing on ‘this could blow people’s hair back in a good way’ or ‘this will be my last time at Comic Con.’ [Pause] It’s hard, mostly while you’re still building your career. I was having a conversation with someone about the struggles of weight in the industry, which is something I’ve had a lot of conversations about, and they said ‘but all of the main movie stars aren’t very underweight’ and I said ‘yes, because once you get to a certain place people will hire you regardless, they just want you in their movie.’ This is more for people trying to get to that place and I’m not really in that place anymore. I’m really, really lucky but I’m more interested to hear someone who is not in two franchises answer that. But we’ll see. [To Hutcherson]: How was that?
Hutcherson: I think that was good.
Lionsgate will open The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 in 2D theaters and IMAX on November 20.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
