They Cast Peeta and Gale

[shipperx]

Looks like it's not just Katniss that they are going against hair-color description. Peeta now has dark hair and Gale is the blond.

From EW:
Josh Hutcherson (The Kids are All Right) and Liam Hemsworth (The Last Song) have joined the cast of Hunger Games in the roles of Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne, respectively, Lionsgate announced today in a release. Both actors will star opposite Jennifer Lawrence, who will play Katniss Everdeen, the heroine who volunteers to represent her remote district in the brutal annual survival test. Hutcherson, for one, has long thought he was right for the part:
 

Strangely, while Hutcherson was never who I pictured physically as Peeta, he was sort of my concept personality-wise (Based primarily on his performance in Bridge to Tarabithia, which, granted, was when he was a kid.  But I liked that movie.

So, while he was never the physical picture in my head, I don't have any issue with the actor they chose. He can at least act.

Gale... I'm a bit more wary of. I saw The Last Song (on HBO.  Shut up. ;)  He wasn't awful there, but he wasn't exactly someone to knock my socks off either. He is very pretty though. But... now Gale is the blond. Hopefully he can act well enough that I can re-write the image of Gale in my head because this guy actually isn't. Based on The Last Song, he doesn't seem dark enough (and I'm not talking hair coloring on this one). Gale has to make some fairly difficult choices, so he needs to capable of being kind of hard-nosed if necessary and the image he had in the Miley Cyrus/Nicholas Sparks movie was good-guy next door... which is more Peeta-like.

Comments

[liliaeth]

Well it's not like they can't dye the guys' hair. Jennifer is going to have to have her hair made darker to play Katniss, so no reason they can't do the same with the male actors as well.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I kind have difficult picturing Hutcherson's complexion with light hair.

And at this point, I'm not sure why bother. The only thing that was all that predicated on appearance was that Katniss and Gale looked as though they could be related and Peeta had the look of a different group of people. Basically since they've inverted the characteristics, it still kind of works, just differently.

[next_to_normal]

Hahaha, themockingjay has EXPLODED. I really don't have much of a preference, since I've never seen any of the possible actors act, so I am reserving judgment.

But just based on looks? They seem fine. Yeah, they can dye everyone's hair... or, actually, just switch the coloring. I know people have been all up in arms about race stuff in the books, but IMO it's the segregation by class (in District 12, at least) that's more important.

The reason everyone from the Seam looks the same is because they don't marry outside their social class. So it doesn't matter what Katniss, Gale, Peeta, etc. look like, as long as Katniss and Gale look alike and Peeta looks different.

It's pretty clear that District 11 is black, but I mean, the people in the Capitol are literally green and purple. I don't think skin color works the same way in their culture.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

So many people have exploded.

Honestly, the biggest deal is whether or not they can carry the heft of the characters. Hutcherson doesn't look like Peeta, but I think he can pull off the character. Same goes for Lawrence. As long as they can act, I think it's all good.

Now, the question is the guy for Gale, because all there's to go by is "The Last Song" and, it just wasn't the same kind of character at all.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I looked them up.

Here's a pic of Liam with dark hair and he actually could be Gale. Not who I'd have cast. But I wouldn't have cast the guy they picked for Peeta either. Truth is - we didn't see them read for it and from what I've read, Suzanne Collins is involved in casting.


Pic of Liam with dark hair:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4211522048/nm2955013

Will state that the guy they picked for Peeta is better than Hunter Parrish - who I did not see in the role. And I agree - he was good in Bridge to Teribetha - a film I liked more than I expected, since I adored the book.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I agree. We didn't see the readings so we can't really judge. The most important thing is whether they can carry the part, and the only way to judge it is to see them try. So we're really mostly basing it on looks and stuff they've done before, which may not be fair at all.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

[Hmmm. Is part of the problem we are having LJ issues that they've changed the whole comments format?]

So we're really mostly basing it on looks and stuff they've done before, which may not be fair at all.

Particularly if you look at the casting for the Buffy series. Looking at Marsters with his dark curly hair
and American accent, would you really have cast him
as Spike? Or Sara Michelle Gellar coming off AMC - a bitchy Brunette, who acted a lot like Cordelia?

Or how about Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virigina Woolf?

Really can't go by what they've previously been or look in photos. Actors, I've discovered, at least the good ones, tend to be professional chameoleons. Have to wait and see.