Francis Lawrencefelt like the odds were in his favor.
Then she turned down the job.
“She went ghostly white.”
Fionnula Flanagan as grandma’am, Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow, and Hunter Schafer as Tigris in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel ‘Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’.Murray Close/Lionsgate
He made promises (“We’ll bring your boyfriend out!”
“We’ll bring your family out!”
“We won’t quarantine you!
Fionnula Flanagan as grandma’am, Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow, and Hunter Schafer as Tigris in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel ‘Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’.Murray Close/Lionsgate
After a galvanizing audition, Lawrence selected Josh Andres Rivera, 28, for the wayward Academy pupil.
“My assistant was like, ‘Do you know who that is?’
And I go, ‘Yeah.
Viola Davis as Volumnia Gaul in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel ‘Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’.Murray Close
“She says, ‘That’s Rachel’s boyfriend.'”
Were the odds truly in his favor?
The filmmaker thought to himself, Zegler “was almost at the end of her schedule.
Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel ‘Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’.Murray Close/Lionsgate
I bet she’s seen the light at the end of the tunnel.
Her boyfriend’s going to be in Poland with us.
I wonder if we’re going to get a call.”
Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel ‘Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’.Lionsgate
And soSongbirds and Snakeshad its leading lady.
It’s that switch, thathowandwhy, that they knew makes for rich and complex storytelling.
“Tom is extraordinary as the turn happens,” Jacobson, 58, says of the leading man.
Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel ‘Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’.Murray Close/Lionsgate
“[Katniss’] draw to Peeta is this shared trauma,” the director observes.
“You go through an experience together and feel more understood by that person than anybody else.
It’s the same here.”
Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel ‘Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’.Lionsgate
With Coriolanus and Lucy Gray, “there’s this mutual need,” he adds.
“He needs her to win and survive sohewins.
She needs him to help her win and survive soshesurvives.”
But also, it’s… complicated.
“There’s manipulation on both sides.”
It certainly helped, too, that the Juilliard alum bears some resemblance to a young Sutherland.
And his chemistry with Zegler sealed the deal.
“They both wear masks for different reasons.
They connect when they decide to perform together [and watch each other] perform for the moment.
Tom and Rachel were really very capable of making those shifts and doing them with each other.”
“I didn’t want it to be mimicry in any way.
I wanted him to play the part in the way thathewould play the part.”
The student’s virtues are shaped by those in his orbit, including Tigris, his closest confidant.
But Donald and I never really thought of him that way,” he explains.
“I know, objectively, the character is.
But these characters have to believe in their philosophies.”
People need to be ruled with an iron fist.”
So, she’s truly the first real gamemaker to think outside the box."
Lawrence hails Dinklage and Blyth’s dynamic as some of his favorite scenes in the movie.
They’re just really appealing stories."
“He is going to break bad,” adds Jacobson.
“You know exactly what’s going to happen.
There’s no mystery.
But the fact is you still so much want him to break good.
How long were you rooting for him?’
I always kind of rooted for him until the end.
The reaped children are just that: children; far from militant.
“These are just normal people.
It’s these elements that make that sequence harder to stomach.
“He probably did the most homework out of anybody.”
You could feel the origins of the host and how it could inform two generations later.”
Katniss first sings the ballad inMockingjay Part 1while filming rebel propaganda to rally allies.
Music, of course, plays a more prominent role in the prequel given the songbird’s Covey background.
(Collins, as it turns out, is a huge country music aficionado.)
Other callbacks were less intentional.
The big moment is not in the book, nor was it even in the script.
“Like Lucy says, ‘I don’t sing when I’m told to.
I sing when I have something to say.’
That’s Suzanne,” Jacobson explains.
Lawrence shares the producer’s sentiments.
What are the thematic underpinnings that make it worth telling?
The original ones were all about the consequences of war.
[BOSS] is about the state of nature.
That’s what makes them feel rich and why they’ve stood the test of time.”
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakesarrives in theaters Nov. 17.
Video interviews for this story were conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
