Stars of the new Hunger Games prequel graced the red carpet at the BFI IMAX in London for the world premiere of the much-anticipated film following the end of the Sag-Aftra actors’ strike.
Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, set 64 years before the first movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, stars West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth as Lucy Gray Baird and the young Coriolanus Snow respectively.
British actor Blyth described a “pretty hefty casting process” before he was awarded the role of a young President Snow, who goes on to become the tyrannical president of dystopian nation Panem, in the upcoming prequel.
“It was a pretty hefty casting process,” Blyth told the PA news agency about landing the role.
“I was still pretty new on the scene, especially in the States, so they had to kind of put me through the wringer to find out if I could do it.
“I’m just glad that they thought I could.”
Blyth, who has also starred in Benediction and Scott And Sid, said he hopes fans of the franchise “feel that their patience has been rewarded” following the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 in 2015.
Speaking from the red carpet, Zegler told PA about her co-star: “Tom is the loveliest guy – such a smart, intelligent, intentional actor who’s Juilliard trained and it shows and I just loved getting to play these characters with him.”
The US actress and singer described feeling “so overwhelmed with gratitude” about being involved in the prequel.
“Getting to tell stories in any capacity is such an honour as an actor, it’s not afforded to many and so getting to tell this story in particular really meant a lot to me,” she added.
Meanwhile, director Francis Lawrence spoke about casting the pair in the lead roles.
“Rachel was my first choice, Tom kind of came in out of nowhere,” he told PA.
“I hadn’t really known his work, and his audition came in kind of late in the game, but once I saw it, I think everybody just knew this is the guy.
“He’s so talented and once we had the two of them, we did a little Zoom chemistry test and I had her sing on the song, an acapella version of the song that very much fits in the world of our movie and it was just a beautiful moment.”
Filmmaker Lawrence said the challenge with the prequel was taking a character that everybody loved to hate and getting the audience “to get behind him and empathise with him and root for him”.
It comes following the end of an 118-day walkout after a “tentative agreement” was reached between US actors’ union Sag-Aftra and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers (AMPTP) who represent Hollywood studio bosses.
