'Catching Fire' Featured in Total Film December

   Total Film has ANOTHER feature on Catching Fire in their December issue! Last month Francis Lawrence talked about the movie (check it out here) and in the December issue, Francis, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, and Jena Malone open up about the movie and their characters.

Check out the excerpts from the issue below, and be sure to pick up Total Film on your newsstand!

Jennifer Lawrence:

"I've been working ever since, so I don’t feel anything has changed. Well, I definitely get more death threats." (on her life post Oscar win)

"In my opinion, it's such an important statement in these movies, what one voice can do. I mean, all of these people, they only need one person to do something different and then they can say, 'OK, we're not alone, we have a leader.' Also, what I like about her is that she never set out to be this Joan of Arc. She got into the games in the first place to save her sister, and then made it through just to save herself, and that turned into saving Peeta, and now, in the second book, she's got a much larger body of people that are depending on her." 

Josh Hutcherson:

"'Catching Fire' is about the slow tension building beneath the surface, with the relationships as well as the rebellion. In this movie you see more of Peeta and Katniss together than you ever did in the first one. It intensifies, the feelings become stronger.

"He's got a fire inside of him in this movie, different to the first. As the Victory Tour goes on, Peeta sees how horrible it is, and when he's put back into the games, he has an anger. This time he's a much more active person in the physicality of the arena." (on Peeta)

"We took the p--- out of each other all day long, just f---ed around," Hutcherson says, before adding, promptly, that everyone was professional and "focused on making the best movie possible for the fans."

In this movie, you see more of Peeta and Katniss together than you ever did in the first one. It intensifies, the feelings become stronger."

"We're so comfortable with each other, such good friends, that there's really not that much romanticism to it. But yeah, she's beautiful and it's a passionate moment and you want to feel real in that moment, so..." (on Jennifer Lawrence)

Sam Claflin:

“My character specifically spends the majority of the film carrying an old woman on his back, in the jungles of Hawaii. When we were in Atlanta doing the cornucopia stuff, all the fighting erupted. I’d been training for months, learning these different fights, and then all of a sudden I was kicking someone really hard into the water! You’re like, ‘Yes! I did that!’ Not that I’m a violent person…”

"Jennifer's very generous and kind, a great role model." (on Jennifer Lawrence)

Liam Hemsworth:

"He stands up for what he believes in. He has to watch his best friend go back into these games, and he's ready to stand up. I got whipped for a couple of days with my shirt off, attached to a pole. By the second day, I had welts on my back." (on Gale)

"Jen's as real as they come, no filter." (on Jen) 

Francis Lawrence:

"The heart of my pitch to the studio was that I was not looking to reinvent the book. Some people look at a book, take a loose version of the spirit of it, then throw it away and 'create'. I wanted to honour the book. I thought it was very visual and cinematic. I thought there could be more sophistication to the clothing, and my version of naturalistic is very different. I like handheld, but I'm not into that shaky cam look. I tend to use wider lenses."

"I think viewers will have much more of a sense of what makes up the arena, and what the boundaries are. It's much more a fabricated arena. It's this sort of tropical jungle in a bowl shape that surrounds a circular body of salt water with an island in the centre. The Cornucopia's on the island, with these spits of land that come out from it, and the tributes all rise up from these elevators in the water. Anything on the beach or in the jungle we shot in Hawaii. Then anything in the water or on the island we basically did at this water part that we found in Atlanta."

"The arena is more of a threat to the characters so, because of that, there's a lot less person-on-person killing in this one. The important theme is the idea of allies and having to work with people you don't necessarily trust. Reliance on others versus reliance on self. It's still intense, but there's less violence. I'm more interested in somebody's reaction to violence or the consequence of it than the blood itself."

Jena Malone:

"Everyone was so welcoming and rad and fun. There were no egos or drama. Jennifer is like Marlon Brando meets Lucille Ball. When you’re in a scene with her, she gives so much and can be so intense and crazy. Then she’ll be falling down and messing around and you’re like “Oh my god, you’re so funny!"

"She'll be eating your snacks and blowing her nose on you."  (on Jennifer Lawrence)

Thanks to QuarterQuell.org and thepeacekeeper/@peaceltj for some of the article transcription and the scans!!