The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes - Behind the Scenes

enjoy the show I've always been a huge Hunger Games fan Catching Fire is one of my favorite movies of all time as well as my favorite of like the original trilogy with when it came to the books and so when Suzanne was coming out with a new book that had to do with the subject matter of Hunger Games I was so excited the moment I picked it up after the first chapter I was hooked and I demolished it in like 2 days and that was how I knew I had to do it because Cory lanus is just such a complex character and seeing him go from young man who is kind of troubled and fighting for his family to young man who is still troubled but this time has kind of a goal and an aim allbe it a dark one and he becomes kind of dark and heavy towards the end and he becomes the kind of dictator that we know him to be in the original movies and seeing that kind of origin story take place is something that I just couldn't not do Lucy greybeard who is our co-lead uh played by Rachel zler is a very different kind of character she's from District 12 but she's almost the sort of anti- catness right she's uh quite charismatic she's a performer she's Mercurial I think she has quite a lot of life experience and quite a lot of life experience in a way that Katniss hasn't really and she's kind of mysterious whereas Katniss was always kind of internal and quiet she wasn't really a mystery where Lucy Gray definitely is a mystery Lucy gray is such a compelling character and it kind of she's kind of a breeding ground for what catniss becomes 65 years later you never know what you're going to get with her and I think what's so amazing about this story when you're why whether you're reading the book or when you're watching our film is that you can never really tell whose side she's on and the way I approached her is that she's always on her side her own side her family her friends herself a big part of what we first talked about Francis and I I was what makes Coro tick to begin with and and a lot of that was to do with his his ambition for his family and although he's an ambitious person later on most of his ambition to kind of fight and become the kind of person who will do anything do whatever it takes to win is mostly stemming from his family's needs and it begins the film begins with his family at like the precipice of like serious hunger and he will do whatever it takes to get them out of that place um and then that gives way to aoro who will start to do anything for himself just to get to the top yeah we talked a lot about where it began and where it ended and how we weaved that path in between and a big part of it was just kind of building the world and and and working out what this world was and what that would do to a person this is the 10th Hunger Games coming up in our in our film and um the previous nine have not really gotten much attention or viewership there's an attempt from the capital to find ways of making more people tune in more people watch well there's mentors they propose the idea of mentors they are accepting ideas from mentors they use some of Cory Lena Snow's ideas and imply them and implant them into the game and part of one of the other new things about these Hunger Games is that is that they have a host for the first time in a few moments we're going to go live which means you might be on camera okay well watching Rachel sing onset was something where you I would get chills or just sit there sort of stunned especially because she mostly chose to sing live which is really rare you know usually you lay down track of you know your your actor and then they lip syn or they maybe sing softly along but they don't bring it every time because that would be exhausting she brought it every time strange things did happen here No Stranger would it be if we met a b midnight in the Hanging Tree Suzanne had an idea of all of the songs she had written all the lyrics all of those lyrics are still true to the the book she had an idea for the tempo and what she thought all of the songs would sound like they're very folk country Appalachian music it's all very much there's a mandolin and a bass and a guitar and she were we worked with Dave Cobb who did the music for a star as born but also wrote and and produced and worked with so many country artists worked with John PR and Dolly Parton and so many people so we were in the best of hands and when I got all of the scratch recordings for the music I was just fell in love and was like we got we got this part right for sure Suzanne Collins the the writer has been probably the most brilliant person I've ever talked to in my life just an absolute um hero when I talk to her she puts me in this world she tells me you know kind of every single detail and the feel and the sound the inspiration for the song so it's going to be fun to take all this history of of you know maybe British Isles music and southern music and and and mash it all together in this dystopian way in this future and kind of keep it raw and rugged and and it just sounds like a fun thing to do to kind of find a sound that isn't a sound that's been had before you know I don't know how you could make a movie like this if there wasn't someone if there wasn't no Rachel you know because you basically like uh this character is just when you read it in the book as well it's just you you're reading about someone who's an incredible singer so you're imagining some everyone's version of that is different but whatever it is it's got to be like stop everyone stops and is just totally mesmerized that's very rare for someone to be able to do that and she really does do that she really is an amazing singer and actor and presence and she does immediately it's startling Rachel is I mean she's so enigmatic she she just sings Lucy gray she is Lucy gray and yeah it's been it's very easy to fall in love with Rachel she's very Charming she brings a lot of kind of raw fiery energy to what she does which is exactly what Lucy gry needs so it's been a pure joy Tom is such a goofy guy which I love I mean that's so important cuz when you're doing heavy subject matter which this is so from time to time it gets very heavy or even when you're just having a light day where you don't have to say anything or the first day that Tom and I had together working on camera was the explosion and in the arena where the arena gets you know exploded into a billion pieces and we were being attacked with air machines and sound machines that just made it look like it was actually exploding in our faces and I have never laughed so hard in my life it's like supposed to be this terrifying scene and then the second we yell cut Tom and I were just having so much fun with one another he's very very goofy and fun you can't just get old anybody to fill Donald zin's shoes as a young man and he also like strikingly looks a little like Donald Sutherland too and Donald Sutherland is one of my favorite actors of all time so so uh you know there's a big shoes to fill I love Viola Davis I love her work I think she's one of the best actors you know living now if not one of the best actors of of all time and as soon as I thought of you know Dr Gul I thought Viola would be perfect I am Dr volumia GA your humble head game maker in charge of the war department and all its Affiliated concerns violi Davis The Legend um yeah wow I I just sort of I was always nervous that I was going to forget my off camera line because I was just watching her when she was on camera just and then I would oh right I'm I'm just cuz I was in such awe of her she's so watchable she's so good she's such a power um and so nice to work with I remember um Viola and Francis describing Dr gou as like a a Willy Wonka kind of you know uh a chocolate factory type villain she's someone who's like you know she's she's so interested in pain and torture and all these kind of horrible things but she does it with delight and so what Viola has brought to it is this kind of constant playfulness and experimenting and the way she works she's always trying something and then if that doesn't work she tries something else and it it just feels like she's got this big tool kit that she's just pulling things out of and as an actor playing with her you're just kind of like dodging what she throws and then throwing things back and vice versa and it just feels so rich at all times and she's just she's great she's great what's really fun is sometimes when you're developing these stories and you're working on scripts and you have these scenes specifically early in the movie where somebody's giving a big speech you know you debate often about how much Exposition you want to sort of spoon feed the audience and some you need but it's always really tricky right but then you get Peter Dinklage coming in and handling that dialogue and it just becomes delicious and he sort of burns through it and you kind of forget that it's just Exposition and he's just a master at it the District 12 runt girl she belongs to Cory Elena snow I think audiences will be very grateful to get a glimpse into the kind of origin of what made the Hunger Games what they are uh I know I watching the original movies always felt like how did they end up here I think if there's anything audiences want it's entertainment and meaning at the same time and this has all of [Music] that are you are you com to the tree where the dead man called out for his love to fle oh strange things Happ stranger would it be if we met up at midnight sorry I still about one foot in the arena

Channel: Mayhem Mendes

Views: 312,172

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Id: ufjD88LAk7I

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 27 2023