To find their perfect Peeta, Lionsgate put actors with already-selected cast member Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) and asked them to do a chemistry read.

Today Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are recalling that audition.

They told MTV:

“They had hired Jennifer, and they were trying to find Peeta. I had gone in for the first round of auditions, and a few weeks later, they brought me back,” Hutcherson said. “We did a chemistry read and kind of hit it off right away, I felt, for the second time, third time,” he joked, playing up the foggy memories of their first meeting. “So that’s the first time we got to play the characters together.”

“We had tons of chemistry,” Lawrence insisted with a laugh. “He was Peeta,” she added of her first impressions of Hutcherson as “the boy with the bread.” “I had heard the director, I had heard Gary [Ross] say, ‘He is the only one who is actually Peeta,’ and then [Josh] came in, and he was. He’s charming and nice and sweet, like a dog licking your face.”

“A dog licking on your face?” Hutcherson asked, wondering if Lawrence was paying him a compliment or not.

“It is! That’s what it’s like hanging out with you, it’s like, ‘Eeeeee!’ ” Lawrence said of her excitement being around the 19-year-old.

So what does Hutcherson think of hanging out with Lawrence? “Like a dog licking your face, but ‘Oh, God, get this away,’ ” he joked. “No, it’s hard to get things done when we’re together. I’m amazed this interview we’ve gotten as many questions in as we have. We just start going and end up talking about the most random things.”

“We always play off each other,” Lawrence added.

“It works,” Hutcherson said.

Check out this video interview to hear them talk about why they wanted the roles so bad, and try to recall the first time they met: