GOLDEN BOY FINDS DARK SIDE
Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson relishes playing traumatized Peeta
came on board for Catching Fire and the two Mockingjay productions.
“That’s why I think I was able to see my objectives through,” says the director. “I came in and I met Nina (producer Jacobson), and I was hired a week later. I had a very clear way that I wanted to tell the story; luckily Nina agreed and the studio really agreed, and everybody kept their word.”
In other words, Lawrence, Hemsworth and Hutcherson, felt protected by a united front on camera despite the pressure from the outside world off camera.
“I don’t think that the success impacts your depiction of the character,” Hutcherson says. “It’s all in the books, and you’re going to play them how you see them.”
Born in Union, Kentucky,
Apparently, Josh Hutcherson likes to keep himself busy with movie franchises. As the 23-year-old wraps The Hunger Games series with the release of Mockingjay — Part 2, he’s preparing himself for another journey with Journey 3: From the Earth to the Moon.
First, though, there is his Peeta portrayal in the last act of the multi-billion dollar young adult fantasy series based on the popular Suzanne Collins’ novels.
In the climax to the dystopian adventure, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), is still the spiritual leader of the revolution as she leads a unit into the Capitol of Panem to eliminate President Snow (Donald Sutherland).
Alongside Katniss is Gale (Liam Hemsworth), who is becoming more determined to fight while Hutcherson’s Peeta continues to suffer the dangerous consequences of his brainwashing.
“This was the final episode that I was looking forward to when I read the books — when Peeta’s hijacked and tortured and all those things,” Hutcherson says.
He’s not being ghoulish. It’s the acting opportunity he’s referencing.
“It was cool to take a character that has a special place for the fans, that everybody loves so much, this golden boy, and to turn him to the dark side,” he says. “I got to explore that while also having the back and forth of being quasi-bipolar from all of the trauma that he’s experienced.” Hutcherson has always been single-minded. At the age of nine, he persuaded his parents to move the family to L.A., so he could audition for roles of any kind. He did the usual voice overs, commercials and minor parts in TV shows and telefilms.
The movie industry started paying attention to him after his higher-profile parts in Zathura and Little Manhattan, and, five years later, he proved he could make the transition to a more mature teen role in 2010’s R-rated, Oscarnominated, The Kids Are All Right.
His part in The Hunger Games altered the landscape for him but the books’ fans were not immediately impressed with his selection. Eventually, he won them over with his committed effort. Now, he considers some of his upcoming movie moves that so far have considerably lower profiles.
Last spring, Hut cher son wrapped James Franco’s indie movie version of the John Steinbeck novel In Dubious Battle and followed that up with Franco’s The Long Home. Journey 3 will return him to the blockbuster venue but that shoot is sometime in the future.
So has the overwhelming and all-encompassing nature of The Hunger Games franchise taught him something about the industry and himself?
“For me it’s a hard question, whenever someone asks, ‘What have you learned?’ Hutcherson says. “I’m constantly learning things just in life and experience, working with various actors and directors.
“I just kind of grew as a person I guess. It was like a college experience in many ways. I’ve learned many things, as an actor and as a person, but to really say something specific — I don’t know.”
This was the final episode that I was looking forward to … when Peeta’s hijacked and tortured and all those things.
Whatever challenge there was, Hutcherson’s happy to report that all three young actors in the lead roles stayed loyal to each other and to director Francis Lawrence who