Stars of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 hit the white carpet on Monday night at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles to celebrate the premiere of the film, which hits theaters this Friday.
Hypable was on the scene at the event and caught up with a few of the series’ new faces. Check out what they had to say about which scenes they are most excited for fans to see and more below!
Actor Evan Ross is one of the many new faces you’ll see when The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 hits theaters this Friday. In the film, Ross plays the role of Messalla, a member of Cressida’s (Natalie Dormer) TV Crew that follows Katniss and her sharpshooter squad on a mission to the Capitol.
When we caught up with Ross on the white carpet at Monday night’s Mockingjay premiere and asked him what his favorite scene in the film is, the actor gave major props to fellow co-star Josh Hutcherson.
“I love the ending scene,” said Ross, who wouldn’t go into detail about what fans can expect about where the movie splits. “Specifically, I think Josh is unbelievable in it and his performance is brilliant.”
Actor Elden Henson assumes the role of an Avox named Pollux who becomes one of the cameramen on Katniss’ crew in Mockingjay – Part 1. While fans can presumably expect to see a bit of Pollux in the film, taking on the role was interesting for Henson because Pollux doesn’t speak.
“I have a friend named Mike who decided he wasn’t going to talk a couple of years ago so I sort of pulled some stuff from him to help me with my character.” said Henson of preparing to play the role of Pollux. “Other than that, I really just tried to stay present in my scenes and made sure I was really listening as opposed to thinking about what I was doing.”
Actress Patina Miller is yet another fresh face to the franchise. Speaking on her character, Commander Paylor, the actress says that while she is introduced in this film, fans can expect to see her play a much bigger role in the next one. According to Miller, fans can expect to see Commander Paylor make her first appearance when Katniss makes her first propaganda visit to District 8 just after the district has been bombed.
As for the scene she’s most excited for fans to see, Miller gave some love to Jennifer Lawrence and said she’s excited for the world to see her singing scene.
“I’ve been reading a lot about Jen saying she hated singing and there’s a part in the film where she is singing and I just think it is so lovely!” said Miller. “I think people are going to gag when they see it!’
We also caught up with actress Willow Shields, who reprises her role as Prim in the film. While the actress didn’t want to give any specifics that might spoil the film for fans, she did say she was most excited for them to see the last scene of Mockingjay Part 1 when the movie finally hits theaters on Friday.
“I think [the last scene] always grabs people’s attention and I think that that’s the most compelling scene in the film every time.” said Shields. “You should be excited– I don’t wanna give anything away because I don’t wanna spoil it but I think it’s an incredible ending!”
Speaking on her favorite scene of Mockingjay – Part 1, producer Nina Jacobson said that in addition to being excited for fans to experience the ‘if we burn, you burn with us’ sequence in its entirety, she’s also excited for them to see the ‘Hanging Tree’ sequence.
“I really love the ‘Hanging Tree’ sequence,” said Jacobson. “We’ve developed it, in addition to what it is in the book, it sort of extends into the sequence that occurs after in a way that I’m really excited for fans to see.”
Finally, we caught up with Mockingjay director Francis Lawrence who spoke to us about the most challenging scene to film in part one. Speaking on the rescue scene, the director said it was a complicated one to shoot simply because there was a ton going on.
“There was just a lot of balls in the air, a lot of stunt sequences, a lot of special effects, a lot of actors in a lot of different places doing a lot of different things so creating that narrative was really tricky.” said Lawrence.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 opens in theaters this Friday, November 21.
Want to see more of our premiere footage? Check out the official Hypable instagram account to see pictures from last night’s white carpet!