Bruno Gunn on The Cast & Bringing a "Bigger, More Physical Brutus" to 'Catching Fire'

One of our favorite Catching Fire cast members, Bruno Gunn talked with his hometown paper, The Canton Repository, about his upcoming turn as Brutus in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Image by Julie Vennitti/CantonRep

“It should be interesting to say the least, having someone come up and say, ‘Gosh, you’re Brutus!’ when I’m pumping gas,” Gunn said, during a recent interview at Bender’s Tavern.

Clearly, Gunn is hoping The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will take him to the next level. “Faith it till you make it” is his longtime mantra.

While unable to divulge any specifics about his action-heavy scenes in Catching Fire — filmed last year in Atlanta and the Hawaiian jungle — Gunn spoke in reverent tones about his fellow cast members.

“You get to the set and look around and it’s just one great actor after another,” he said. “The first night there I was having dinner with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jennifer (Lawrence), Josh (Hutcherson), Stanley Tucci, Jeffrey Wright, Amanda Plummer. Not just great actors but good human beings.

“I’d be in makeup talking art with Woody Harrelson,” Gunn recalled. “Watching Stanley Tucci act was like a master class in acting. That goes for Jennifer and Josh, too. I’d hang back, watch and learn as much as possible.”

After receiving the news that he’d been cast as Brutus, Gunn first made an ecstatic phone call to his fiancée. But as fate would have it, he was flying to Italy that very day to visit with friends and family, and decided to wait until he arrived to tell them.

“Here I am with this life-changing news and I’m stuck on a plane for nine hours,” he said. To his amusement, the majority of his fellow passengers were watching the first “Hunger Games” as the in-flight movie.

To prepare for his Catching Fire role as Brutus, a strong and brutal returning Hunger Games victor, Gunn worked out intensively three to four hours daily with trainer Drew Logan, doing a lot of weights, a lot of cardio and 500 situps every night.” “I was in good shape when I got the role, but I wanted to bring a stronger, bigger, more physical Brutus.”

Apparently, Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins was pleased with Gunn’s casting as Brutus.

“When I met her,” he said, “she dove in and gave me a big bear hug.”

Read more at CantonRep.com

HQ Scans From EW's 'Catching Fire' Issue

We've got the high quality scans from EW's Oct 11th Catching Fire Special issue! Hooray for the tablet edition. Check out the entire article and all of the pics including a new and totally adorable pic of Finnick and Mags!! We've updated our GALLERY page with all the HQ covers as well.

See all the HQ scans HERE

Josh Hutcherson on why he identifies with Peeta

Yahoo has published an excerpt of Josh Hutcherson's interview with Glamour magazine, from the November 2013 issue:

He's acted in almost 40 films, but before last year you probably only knew Josh Hutcherson, 20, from his role as the son of a lesbian couple in 2010's The Kids Are All Right. It wasn't until getting cast as Peeta Mellark in The HungerGames--one third of the Katniss-Gale-Peeta love triangle--that he became paparazzi-stalked and face-on-a-T-shirt famous. As he and the rest of the world gear up for November's release of the trilogy's second film, Catching Fire, the Kentucky native (who is, honestly, the nicest) talked to Glamour about costars, chemistry, and dating in Hollywood. 

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Sam Claflin interview in Elle Magazine

Courtesy of Sam Claflin FansThere is an incredibly charming interview with Sam Claflin (okay, I'm biased - MC) in the latest issue of Elle UK. In it, he speaks about his newfound fame, wife Laura Haddock, and, of course, playing Finnick in Catching Fire.


An excerpt:

In the book, Katniss describes Finnick thus: 'An amazing physical specimen. One of the most stunning, sensuous people on the planet.' Sam Calflin wiggles awkwardly in his chair. 'Ha, yeah, miscast!' he grins. This was the complaint from certaint sectors of the Hunger Games' fans, who took issue with Claflin's casting; he wasn't manly enough, muscular enough, bronzed enough. 'I saw people's reactions and some were harsh. Not to the point where I'm going to kill myself but I thought "I'm sorry I'm not YOUR Finnick. Trust me, when I read the book, I didn't see me as Finnick either!"' he smiles.

But looks aren't everything and Claflin aced it. 'He's a very complex character and you have to be able to portray the vulnerabilities as well as the charm and charisma. There was something I did with the acting part of it that they liked,' he says, with a shrug. 

You can read the rest over here, courtesy of Sam Claflin Fans. 

 Courtesy of Sam Claflin Fans

Jena on Johanna from EW

When we first meet Johanna Mason, a ferocious, ax-wielding victor from District 7, it's on an elevator with Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta. She stares down the trio and proceeds to strip naked. "It's one of the best introductions to a character ever," says 28-year-old actress Jena Malone (Donnie Darko). "I had to learn how to do a striptease in four seconds."

For Malone, Johanna defies expectations for women in genre films. "She's not just another badass sexy female," she says. "Her sexuality is a weapon. Her humor is a weapon. They're part of her process of coping with the fact that she killed all her friends in her own Hunger Games." Malone can't shake one particular scene in which her entire body is drenched in blood. "I felt like this gladiator," she says. "The cameras would cut and I would still have this crazy energy surging through me. Johanna took over."


From EW's October 11 "Catching Fire" special issue.

Charity Auction - Bid on Alan Ritchson Autographed Copy of THG Boxed Set

Alan Ritchson's autograph could be yours, along with a new copy of the boxed set of the Hunger Games trilogy: Hollywood YoungLife is auctioning off a set of the books signed by the actor who plays Gloss!

CHARITY AUCTION! 100% of the profit of this item will go to benefit a non-profit (more details below)

FOR SALE: A set of the acclaimed trilogy HUNGER GAMES, with each book and the box signed by star ALAN RITCHSON, playing GLOSS in the new film to be released in November! Check out our other items signed by Alan - if you win all 3, Alan will send you a personalized video thanking you for your donation to Hollywood YoungLife; a non-profit to benefit teenagers in Los Angeles!

We'll be adding a few more auction items to benefit this charity THIS WEEK ONLY - so please check back in the next few days!!

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Hydrogen Magazine's interview with Stephanie Leigh Schlund

Hydrogen Magazine has an interview with Stephanie Leigh Schlund (Cashmere), where she discusses Catching Fire (among many other things!)

HM: Let’s talk about The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. First of all, what does it feel like being caught in the eye of this crazy storm, with the fans and the huge success of the film?

SLS: It’s been a wild ride! When I got the role, I had to keep it my little secret until I was announced but nothing could have prepared me for this. It’s been my life for last year solid but honestly, our fan base is amazing. They are so sweet and warm and it’s been such a blessing.

HM: You play Tribute ‘Cashmere’ from District 1. And Cashmere and her brother Gloss (Alan Ritchson) battle Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson’s characters for the title in the 74th Annual Hunger-Games Quarter Quell. Tell me all about Cashmere.

SLS: Cashmere is a mass manipulator who uses her -beauty to get what she wants. She is from District 1 and has been trained from birth to fight, and she is also a natural born killer, so, kind of a double dose. She fears little and that confidence may get best of her. It was great working with Jennifer [Lawrence] one on one. She is Cashmere’s nemesis because Katniss is winning hearts and Cashmere is trying to do the same as she needs votes to stay in the game.

HM: Do you see any of yourself in Cashmere?

SLS: I wouldn’t have very many friends if I did [laughs]! I can relate on a fashion level, but that’s about it!

HM: Most unexpected moment while shooting The Hunger Games: Catching Fire…

SLS: Do you know what it’s like to stare at the back end of a horse for three days [laughs]?

You can read the interview in its entirety here. 

More From Entertainment Weekly's 'Catching Fire' Issue!

EW posted three new stills from their October 11 Catching Fire issue this morning. We've also got a preview of the story, with part of Jennifer Lawrence's interview below. Check out the 4 gorgeous different versions of the cover HERE. 

On her way to the podium to accept the award for Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence famously fell up the stairs—a moment which most Oscar bloggers regarded as the highlight of the evening.

"I'm not that upset by it," Lawrence reveals in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. "I didn't expect to make it up the steps in a dress like that. It's just that the fall frazzled me so much that I forgot to thank the director [David O. Russell] and Harvey Weinstein. It'll get funny to me eventually. I'll get there."

As Lawrence tells it, there was just as much falling down on the set of Catching Fire as there was at the Oscars. "Let me tell you, Sam [Claflin, the actor who plays Finnick Odair] is the clumsiest, most accident-prone person in the world. He broke his hand within the first week. He walked into a twig, and his eye was bleeding. He fell every single scene."

Lawrence's co-star, Josh Hutcherson, was almost as bad. "The funniest thing that happened was when Josh got down on one knee to propose to me—and his pants ripped," Lawrence says.

As it happens, Lawrence's favourite memory from the Catching Fire shoot also involves falling down.nning until we fell, but we were all scared because we didn't know where the reef was because it was dar "In Hawaii one night, we were having a party at Josh's house and we all held hands and ran into the ocean," she says. "We would run as fast as we could into the water and we'd keep running until we fell, but we were all scared because we didn't know where the reef was because it was dark."

Elsewhere in the interview, Lawrence talks about her least favourite scene in the first Hunger Games movie (hint: it involves giant dogs), her most difficult scene in Catching Fire, working with Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the difficulty of saying goodbye.