During times of extraordinary societal conflict, people’s personal morals are often put to the test. The screen adaptation of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the prequel to the dystopian action franchise The Hunger Games, explores how Panem’s past, including the rise of the titular games, impacts the conscious of young Coriolanus Snow.

The origin story examines all the historical referenced in the previous films through the eyes of the future autocratic ruler of Panem, whose story is the throughline across all of the series’ previous entries. In the new movie, Snow battles the duality of spirit – songbird and snake – within himself. He’s equally light and dark, good and evil, NS joy and sorrow – a fusion of feathers and scales. Every personal and professional decision he makes within the Capital and The Hunger Games propels him down a path that reveals his true self.

Franchise alum Francis Lawrence, who directed the three sequels to the 2012 original film (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2) returned to the series to helm the prequel. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes‘ screenplay was written by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt, who based the story on franchise author Suzanne Collins’ 2020 prequel novel of the same name.

Lawrence served as a producer on the prequel book’s screen adaptation. Collins was one of the executive producer on the movie series’ fifth installment, after she previously executive produced the previous four features.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes features an ensemble cast of new franchise performers. The drama’s main actors are Tom Blyth (Scott and Sid) and Golden Globe winner Rachel Zegler (West Side Story [2021]). The supporting cast includes Emmy winner Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), Josh Andrés Rivera (West Side Story [2021]), Jason Schwartzman and Oscar winner Viola Davis.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes follows a young Coriolanus (Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. Trying to improve his threatened livelihood, during the 10th Hunger Games, Corio is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Zegler). Lucy Gray is the girl tribute from District 12, the same district as Katniss Everdeen (portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the first four films), the eventual Victor of the 74th Hunger Games.

But after Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Corio sees an opportunity to shift their fates. With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, he unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Corio sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake.

Blyth, Zegler, Schafer and Rivera generously took the time to talk about starring in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes during a press conferences over Zoom. The interview was held last weekend, three days after the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike. The drama is now playing in theaters, courtesy of Lionsgate.

 

Q: I want to establish your Hunger Games fandom. On a scale of one to 10, what was the level of your Hunger Games fandom coming into this? 

Tom Blyth: Fandom-wise, I was a huge fan of the original films. I went to see them every opening weekend growing up. I hadn’t read the original books much to my regret when I got this part. It turned out to be a good thing, though, because then I didn’t have to infect my brain with all this stuff that comes 64 years later.

But I obviously then read this book and fell in love with the writing. I was like, I have to go back and read those original books. So, next on the list is to rewind and go back and read all the others.

The part of Corio to me was just like an absolute dream come true. As a fan of those original films, I enjoyed watching what Donald Sutherland did with him, which was deliciously evil. We got to rewind the history tapes and look at why he became like that.

We also questioned his morality and got to go through what he goes through in the book. It was an absolute dream for me as an actor.

Q: Rachel, how about you?

Rachel Zegler: I wasn’t quite writing love letters to Suzanne Collins, but I was definitely up there. I would give myself a nine.

I did read all of the books, and I saw all the movies as they came out. It was a really a bonding experience for my mom, my older sister and I, because we all read them together and watched the movies together. It was so wonderful.

So when it came to this book, I read it the second it came out in 2020 because it was very anticipated for me. I just love that Suzanne was adding onto this story that I loved so much.

Then when I found out that there’s this brown-haired girl who loved to sing from District 12, I just got so excited at the prospect of getting to do something like that. I was reading it, imagining the opportunity to perform as her.

When it came time to the casting. and Francis (Lawrence) called my agent and said that I was his top pick to play the part, I was so humbled and honored. I’m so glad that I got that opportunity that I had dreamed of when I was reading it.

Q: Great. Hunter, how about you? 

Hunter Schafer: I would say, probably a nine to a 10 as far as fandom-ness goes.  I read the books in middle school and was deeply obsessed.

I then saw the first movie and got obsessed with the costumes.  I made my own Capitol costume for Halloween one year.  I was also drawing my own graphic novels of the books. It was a real deep obsession for a while, so it feels really full-circle to be here now doing this.

I do feel like if I were to play anybody in this book, it was supposed to be Tigris.  I think I feel aligned with how she moves throughout the world and uses fashion as an armor.

I also just admire her values and the fact that she puts family and family first. I also liked that she operates on the fact that she’ll do anything for them. That’s something that I want to stay aligned with throughout my life.

Q: Josh, what about you?

Josh Andrés Rivera: I read the first book when I was younger, and I got really into the movies. So I’m a pretty big fan. I did a quiz of it last week, and I did really bad, though. So I guess that puts me at like a seven or an eight, because I guess I didn’t retain a crazy amount from the original, but I really liked them.

Q: Tell us a little bit about Sejanus. 

Josh Andrés Rivera: Something I really, really liked about him, and that definitely drew me in when we started filming, was the amount of friction he has with so many of the characters. Just as far as portraying something goes, that tends to be the funner thing to do – having a lot of people disagree with you, and you trying to convince everyone that you’re right. His overall belief system and how that contrasted the world that he was in was really fun.

Q: Tom, you mentioned the great Donald Sutherland. What massive shoes to fill. This is a younger version of his character, and obviously he’s going to evolve a lot between these two stories. But how much did you look at that performance in those first four films for clues on how you would form a younger version of him? 

Tom Blyth: I had to refrain myself from going down the rabbit hole of watching all those movies again and watching his performance again. Obviously, the first instinct I had was to try and kind of recreate it somehow, or to nod to it in a savvy way.

But the thing is, that’s never going to be slick or savvy.  Everyone’s going to be like, it feels like you’re copying a performance that has already been great.

The minute as an actor you try to recreate anything that works, whether it’s something you’ve done or something another actor has done, it’s the death of spontaneity. You just can’t recreate it. It has to be fresh and in that moment. It can only live in that moment.

So very early on, I put that to the side. Francis and I talked about making my own, and also just asking what drives him now, as opposed to what drives him later on when he’s president and a dictator and a tyrant. He is a different character in this movie and in this book. He’s a character who is a brother and a grandson and a student, and an ambitious kid who just wants to do well in his life.

Then by the end of this movie, he’s something totally different because of his relationship with Lucy Gray, and his relationship to the Capitol in general, and what he sees and what he learns. The beauty of the film is that you get to see that transition in real time, and that’s what draws me to him so much as a character.  I think that’s what the fans are drawn to as a character – seeing that he’s not just one thing.

He ends up as a tyrant, but 64 years before that, he was something else entirely. The interesting part is seeing what he goes through to get there.

I think by the end, I wanted him to be more like the President Snow that we know. But at the beginning, he’s something completely different. I just keep saying I hope that by the end of the film, you see three distinct Corios. You got Corio the boy, the Coriolanus who’s becoming a man, and Coriolanus Snow, the future president. Hopefully you see his body and his voice change with that.

Q: Hunter, similar question for you because Tigris evolves also pretty dramatically in a lot of ways, both emotionally and physically. Did you closely look at her appearances in the earlier films, in forming her?

Hunter Schafer: I distinctly remember her character in the books. Then seeing that character in the Mockingjay movie, she was so striking. But clearly, there’s a pretty big jump from this movie to that Tigris.

I’m thankful for that because it allowed us to, in the same respect Tom was talking about, create our own take on this Tigris on a visual level and on a character level. It allow us to develop so many literal layers of stuff that she’s accumulated by the time we meet her in Mockingjay, but we let those fall away for this. That allowed me to bring a bit of myself into this Tigris. Also, having the resource of the book was a blessing.

Q: Rachel, you do not play a younger version of Jennifer Lawrence in this movie. But as a fan, were there lessons that you took from her performances in the earlier films that you were able to apply to yours in this one?

Rachel Zegler: I think, as actors, watching Jennifer’s performance in the original trilogy is watching a masterclass in performance, in general.

But when it came to the approach of Lucy Gray, I felt like I didn’t have to imitate her, akin to what Tom was saying. It puts an unnecessary pressure because it’s a different character and a different time of Panem. I feel Lucy Gray is a war torn teenager who’s had everything she knows ripped from her, yet she’s still making the best of it. So, it was very similar to Katniss in that perspective.

But Lucy Gray has a very different dynamic in response to being placed in an arena in front of a bunch of people and having to make the world root for her. She’s very good at that. She’s very persuasive in her performance and very good at getting an audience on her side.

So, it was very fun to play that, but at the same time, I do think that there are some elements of Katniss within her. That makes it all the more fun to go back and watch the original trilogy and see how Coriolanus remains haunted by Lucy Gray, even in his late life, because there are echoes of her within Katniss Everdeen.

Q: Josh and Tom, with the brotherhood that you developed both on and off set, how important was growing that bond for your characters?  Were there any memorable moments between the both of you on set that cemented that?

Tom Blyth: We were pretty much the first two cast members to arrive on set.

Josh Andrés Rivera: Yes, we got pretty lucky in that way, I feel.

Tom Blyth: We were the earliest scenes up at the very beginning, so Josh and I were in Berlin, doing our fittings together.  I think we met at a fitting for the first time, right?

Josh Andrés Rivera: We did. I went to say hi to Francis because I don’t think I had met him in person yet. You were just getting done with a meeting, as well.

Tom Blyth: He had two back-to-back meetings where he did a meet and greet with us, right?

Josh Andrés Rivera: Yes, exactly.

Tom Blyth: I came out and you were going in.

Josh Andrés Rivera: It was quick like that. But we did have the luxury of hanging out a lot during pre-production.

Tom Blyth: We went to see some movies. We went to a Leon Bridges gig together in Berlin.

Josh Andrés Rivera: Yes, that’s right. It was nice. We had the real luxury of having that chemistry already be there a bit when we first had to film.

The first scene we shot actually was when Corio has to rescue Sejanus in the arena, which if you remember from the book, is quite vulnerable and intense. To have that be your first day is a bit intimidating. But it was definitely really nice that we had the luxury to get to know each other beforehand, because I think that manifested a good amount.

Tom Blyth: In terms of stories, there is one that sticks out where, towards the end of the shoot, we were filming this scene. Actually, one of the earlier scenes in the movie, which is the Reaping Day scene, where all the students and mentors are gathered and then told that it’s the Reaping Day and that we’re being given mentees, basically.

In the scene originally, he was supposed to give me some cookies, because he realizes that Corio is hungry and that his family isn’t doing that well, even though they’re keeping up appearances. (Laughs)

Every time Josh went to give me the little packet of cookies, I’d put my hand out to reach them and it would feel really light. I’d be like, I’m supposed to eat them in the scene. I go to open it, and there’s no cookies left, because Josh has been eating them on set. (Laughs) We must’ve done, like, 12 takes of this one bit of coverage.

Josh Andrés Rivera: It was a lot. It was two cookies per package. They were really good. They were peanut butter.

Tom Blyth: They were peanut butter, which actually means you were saving my life, because I have a mild peanut allergy.

Josh Andrés Rivera: You’re welcome, Tom. I’m a little guardian angel, actually.

Tom Blyth: But every time, I was surprised, as I thought there was going to be cookies in, and every time there wasn’t.

Josh Andrés Rivera: They were really good.

Q: Rachel, can you share more about the experience of actually singing live on set, and what that entailed? How did you move through any challenges or fears on this one?

Rachel Zegler: It was my choice to sing live on set. I had done it before on my first film (West Side Story) and I feel really confident in that sphere of performance, in general. That was what I came out of the womb doing on stage. So, getting to do that for my peers and on set for my crew and the creative team was something really special that I felt like I could bring to the table.

When you’re working on sets like that, or when you’re even watching movies, it takes you out of the world when all of the sudden, somebody starts lip-syncing. So, I felt really blessed that Francis and (producer) Nina (Jacobson) trusted me to do that and getting to bring that into the acoustics of the Hob or the stage at the Reaping, and all of the other places. But I don’t want to spoil where Lucy Gray gets to sing.

It just adds a completely different tone to the scenes. I felt like it was really, really important, not only to me, but also to the character. So I thought that I would be doing a disservice if I didn’t perform live every take.

It was a lot and it was very strenuous, but I trained to do it and I felt really, really confident with the outcome. I hope audiences do, too.

Q: Which was the coolest prop, set or outfit to see brought to life visually for the film?

Rachel Zegler: I was definitely curious to see what (costume designer) Trish Summerville was going do with the rainbow dress. The only description it gets in the book is that there are pink, blue and yellow ruffles, and that’s it. (Laughs.) I was really, really wondering how she was going bring it to life. It was even better than I could’ve possibly imagined. I think it really speaks for itself.

But then, I was also curious about the rest of Lucy Gray’s costumes, because the rest of her outfits really don’t get described too much in the book. I think Trish just took the “Covey love color” line, and ran with it in such a beautiful direction.

Also in post-production, seeing what the rainbow snakes in Dr. Gaul’s lab looked like was amazing. That was really cool for me, as a book fan.

Q: Tom, did you have one?

Tom Blyth:  You know, it’s not a prop, but actually the Hob as a location, for me was just next level art direction. It was so well done.

What I love about reading a book and then seeing a film adaptation is that sometimes it totally meets your expectation and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, that’s exactly what I imagined.” It’s cathartic because it’s exactly what you had in your mind.

But then sometimes your expectation is challenges and you see something that you’re like, “Oh, that’s not what I thought at all.  It’s even better and cooler.” That happens with the casting, but it also happens with art direction.

The Hob, for me, was a moment where I went, oh, I could never have imagined this in my wildest dreams. I thought it was just a marketplace with a little shack where the music is played when I read it.

But actually, production designer Uli Hanisch set it amazingly. This is a great location scouting moment where they set it in this old, disused steel mine in Duisburg, Germany. It was down in the depths of this mine.

Then they put the marketplace and stage in there, so it echoed. It had all this this cool paraphernalia, some of which, you recognize from the first films, and some of it’s new.  But that was a cool moment for me.

Q: What would be your strategy and/or weapon of choice if you were to compete in the Hunger Games, Hunter?

Hunter Schafer: I’m going to go with camouflage, because I have a little experience with paint. So I feel like I could go Peeta on them and be a rock or something.

Rachel Zegler: I feel like I’d have to go the route of Lucy Gray. We were just talking about this earlier, as you do. I think I would have to win the affections of Panem and get a lot of sponsors so that I don’t die of hunger, and then hide.  But hide and wait everyone out. (laughs)

Tom Blyth: What I also like in the movies of the original franchise is when Peeta does the face paint. I also like to think I could do that, too, but I definitely couldn’t. So, I probably would rely on my climbing skills, because I’m pretty good at climbing, so I’d probably climb trees.

Josh Andrés Rivera: I would probably try to make friends with the strong boys, and just see how far I can coast under their shoulders before they backstab me eventually. But we’ll worry about that when we get there.

Q: Thank you all so much for being here today. Huge congrats on the film.  You guys are wonderful in it.

Tom Blyth: Thank you.

Rachel Zegler: Thank you.

Check out more of Karen Benardello’s articles.

Here’s the trailer of the film.