Woody Harrelson Had to Be Reined in While Filming ‘The Hunger Games’
Actor Woody Harrelson added another blockbuster to his long list of hit movies when he joined The Hunger Games. But he admitted that his ideas for his character needed to be toned down a couple of notches.
‘The Hunger Games’ director quickly disagreed with Woody Harrelson’s take on his character
Harrelson ended up playing Haymitch Abernarthy in Hunger Games. His character was a former winner of the films’ contest where young boys and girls compete for survival. Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen would end up under Haymitch’s mentorship. In a resurfaced interview with The Huffington Post, Harrelson shared that Haymitch was one of the most unique roles he’s played.
“I think he is a pretty fine character. I can’t think of any other character I have played like him. He is quite a unique character. Also he’s interesting because he’s one thing on the surface but then you find he is a little bit different, further down the road. He has that thing of people not being able to quantify him,” he said.
Still, Harrelson shared that he wanted to add a bit more to Haymitch in the beginning. The Hunger Games filmmaker, however, wanted Harrelson to play Haymitch as he was written.
“That was kind of a discussion between Gary [Ross, the director] and I, because I always wanted to make Haymitch more drunk and debauched, but Gary wanted to keep a rein on it so that it wasn’t too much like that,” Harrelson said. “In other words there are times when he had to get down to business so, yes, that had to be properly pitched. Me, I am always in general ready to go over the top with it, so it is helpful to have a director like Gary bringing me back.”
Woody Harrelson turned down ‘The Hunger Games’ twice
The Hunger Games initially wasn’t a project Harrelson was interested in. Although he liked the film’s script well enough, for one reason or another he didn’t connect to the material. It wasn’t until he actually spoke with Ross himself that he had a change of heart.
“I turned it down and they re-offered it and I turned it down again,” Harrelson once told The Independent. “Then Gary Ross called me and convinced me to do it on the phone. I’d thought the writing was good but it didn’t feel that much to do for me.”
Reading author Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books, which the movies were based on, also further sold Harrelson on the project.
“I thought Suzanne wrote incredible stories that are the perfect illustration of what’s going in the world, with governments controlled by giant industries,” he said.
Harrelson would end up playing Haymitch for all four of the franchise’s hit films.
Woody Harrelson was devastated after director Gary Ross left ‘The Hunger Games’
Ross would only stick around for the first Hunger Games film. The rest of the franchise’s movies would be directed by filmmaker Francis Lawrence. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ross explained he left the franchise simply because he had too much on his plate.
“Well, it was a very hard decision,” Ross remembered. “I think what people didn’t realize is that I had two jobs. I wrote and I directed, and you do one of those things before you do the other. There was honestly no time to do both well in the three and a half months between movies, so I moved on. I got to make Free State of Jones, which not many people saw but remains one of my favorite pieces of work, so — all good.”
But the Natural Born Killers star wasn’t too thrilled with Ross jumping ship so soon. Although he had full faith in Ross’ substitute.
“I miss Gary – I love Gary. I was devastated when he fell out but I couldn’t be much happier with the replacement,” Harrelson once said according to Irish Examiner.
