As with many great works of science-fiction, the world of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games can be viewed as an allegory to our own world. While individual readers and/or audience members will ultimately have to make their own conclusions about the story’s relevancy to their own lives, actor Donald Sutherland has some very specific thoughts on the sociopolitical meaning of the tale, likening Katniss Everdeen’s struggle to the Occupy moment.
I think I just read something that can change everything, he tells ComingSoon.net was his first thought after reading the screenplay and, in the below interview, relates what he believes to be the important metaphor of The Hunger Games.
In the film, Sutherland plays President Coriolanus Snow, the ruler Panem, a nation that lies in the ruins of what was once North America. There, he oversees the annual “Hunger Games,” a bloody winner-take-all competition in which 24 teens fight to the death for the amusement of the Capitol and its 12 Districts.
This being the third in our continuing series of interviews with the cast and crew, you can still read our conversation with Jennifer Lawrence by clicking here and our talk with Liam Hemsworth and Hutcherson by clicking here.
Q: What kind of roles are you looking for at this stage of your career?
Donald Sutherland: Whatever strikes my heart, you know? I mean, this script — it came, I read it. I couldnt read it actually. I pushed it away. I sat back and I said to my wife, I think I just read something that can change everything. I had no idea about “The Hunger Games,” anything about the books, the fascination, nothing, nothing. I only discovered that in the dermatologist’s office. At my age you get barnacles taken off your head and stuff. I mean, theyre not really barnacles, but my wretched dermatologist calls them that. And she said, What are you doing? And I said, I just finished shooting ‘Hunger Games.’ I got maybe the m of Hunger Games out and the office was suddenly filled with people jumping up and down in hysteria. And these are adults! So I figured it out. This script came and it seemed to me that it was a game changer. That it had the possibility, if it were properly done, to catalyze, motivate, mobilize a generation of young people who were, in my opinion, by and large dormant in the political process. You have Occupy Wall Street and all that, but it has a limited base or it seems to have a limited base. And I hoped and I felt that this could maybe spread out across the country. I dont care what they do, just so long as they stand up and do something so that they identify the political situation that were in. I was thrilled at that possibility. And then when Gary [Ross] asked me to do it, to play the President, it was at that time a very peripheral part. We were in North Carolina and talking about that nature of the oligarchies and the privileged and how to administer them. And he said, Im going to write, god, hes brilliant. Hes an amazing man, he really is. You loathe to use the word genius, but hes quite extraordinary from my point of view. And he went away and he came back with a couple of scenes with such economy of language. Of such specificity. He said, I think what we have to talk about is hope and fear. And those scenes arent in the book. He wrote them and Suzanne Collins loved them. But it so perfectly described what someone — an administrator, a bureaucrat, not even a leader — that Coriolanus Snow is and that he has to do. How do you keep that underclass in control? You offer them a little bit of hope. He thinks that Wes Bentleys character would probably take over his position. He is 76 years old, He was two years old when the Hunger Games started. And hes looking for a successor. And he tests Wes character. Youve allowed this girl. This underdog. Do you like underdogs? Youve allowed her to take some kind of position of power. …When you fail, you die. Youre not really of any use. You have your chances. Its kind of the same in this business these days, you know? You have that one chance and you either succeed or fail.
Q: Were you familiar with Jennifer Lawrence before taking the part?
Sutherland: Neither Gary nor I knew Jennifer Lawrence. I hadnt seen “Winters Bone.” But she is, evidenced by that picture and this picture, I would say one of the very best actors working around today. I talked to Gary about George Bernard Shaw and Saint Joan. And Im not a big fan of the play, but the premise is extraordinary and Shaw talks about Joan and all those guys being genius. In their particular moment of their political ascendancy, they were genius. And she, Katniss Everdeen, is a genius. You know, she doesnt know it when she goes into the arena and shes in the middle of this coliseum, but it develops. Everything she does is correct. When she reaches down and picks up those berries and puts them in her pocket, I know that she needs them for a scene later on. Ive read the script. But the character doesnt know it and just the genius of how that character knows that that might be a weapon that she can use. But most actors who play that will give you something. Just a little hint of an indicator that they actually know that they need it later. This girl! I said to her, I said, You should change your name to Jennifer Lawrence Olivier!.
Q: As scary and terrible a person as President Snow is
Sutherland: Okay, I dont find him scary or terrible.
Q: Well, I was going to say that there is some sympathy there because we dont know this world and we know that something very bad has happened in the past. You can almost see fear in him.
Sutherland: I dont think you see fear in him. I think you see challenge. At my age the only thing youre really afraid of is Depends [laughs]. I think he sees challenge and I think he sees it in this Katniss Everdeen. I think he sees in her the challenge that hes been waiting for. You know, sitting there, somebody someday is going to come up sometime. And this particular one, given how its all gone, you cant just kill her. You have to find some other way of controlling her, containing her.
Q: Your character is the only one who seems to really understand that there is a world possible outside of the Hunger Games.
Sutherland: Yeah, sure there is. You know, you think when General Electric doesnt pay tax on four billion dollars they dont know that there is another world possible where they did pay the bloody tax? Sure they do.
Q: Its interesting that you could really connect it to the Occupy moment. The underdog speech is something you might hear on conservative radio.
Sutherland: Exactly, yeah. Yeah. Except for Rush [Limbaugh] [laughs]. I bet Lionsgate doesnt want us to dwell too much on Occupy Wall Street. But youre right. I went there. I went to Occupy Vancouver. It felt so good. Somewhere around 74, whatever we were doing was co-opted. It was commercialized. It became a brand and everybody lost heart. I have here [reaches for his briefcase], I have it here I dont want to take it out, The Port Huron Statement, that the SDS made in 1962… Oh god, read it. Read it! Read it! Its so — its just brilliant. Its really brilliant. Its brilliant today and I cant read it because I cant see properly, but it ends with something to the effect of, You might think that what we are proposing is unattainable. But were proposing that because otherwise what is going to happen is unimaginable. And thats what happened.
Q: Can you talk about President Snow viewing this position in the world of Panem and the challenge…
Sutherland: No, no, I dont see it as a challenge. Thats a grave misconstruction of what I said. He expects someone to come and challenge his position. Hes very confident. His main priority, actually, are roses. I mean, you see that he looks different from people in the community. Hes much older and he comes from a different generation, in the same sense that my parents didnt really like Elvis Presley. I was crazy about him, and so to with President Snow in that Im not sure how much he approves of all that. But its okay. Now I got out in that hallway and all those loads of people have tattoos. I dont have any tattoos, you know? I could have Rh Negative on there, I dont even have that [laughs]. So thats why he looks like he looks.
Q: So if youre being in the skin of President Snow and understanding him, making connections like the Occupy Wall Street, does that make you have understanding of people who are on the opposite side of that movement?
Sutherland: That actually doesnt really enter into the character, but it enters into the process of my thinking around the character. Yeah, sure, sure. What he does, any actor they give the character a little piece of DNA, my DNA, and stuck a script on it and put it in a petri dish inside your belly and out comes this fella. So hes part me, hes part the script, and so he really is off on his own, and he certainly isnt thinking about Occupy Wall Street or anything else. But me, sure, I muse about those kinds of things.
The Hunger Games hits theaters on March 23rd. Check back between now and then for more interviews with the cast and crew.
