Actor Tom Blyth talks about truth vs. loyalty, perspective within legacy and the physicality informing emotionality in regards to the new prequel from Lionsgate: "The Hunger Games - The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes".
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [SCREAMING]
00:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:04 Mr. Snow, let me ask you one final time.
00:23 What are the Hunger Games for?
00:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:28 (SINGING) I'm gonna hang into you.
00:31 It's the things we love most that destroy us.
00:42 We talked about this, I think, with Billy, too,
00:44 is the aspect of what trust and loyalty
00:47 mean in a certain world.
00:49 Could you talk about those sort of elements of him?
00:52 Because it depends where he is in the story.
00:55 Yeah.
00:56 Yeah, that's a really profound question, I think,
00:58 because it is at the heart of the story
01:00 and is at the heart of Corey Lainis' track
01:03 and kind of like his passage through the film.
01:06 I think trust is like the big question for him, really.
01:09 And it's whether or not he's willing to give up
01:12 control in favor of trust.
01:15 And Lucy Gray is basically saying,
01:18 as long as you're truthful, as long as you're honest,
01:20 as long as you live freely, you can trust people.
01:23 You can trust others and trust that they will do the same.
01:26 But he innately doesn't have trust
01:28 because of what he's been through in the Capitol,
01:29 because of losing his father,
01:31 because of losing his father to the district specifically,
01:34 and because of what he's been taught.
01:36 Like, you know, he's been taught not to trust.
01:38 And I think that is one of the core questions in the film
01:42 and in the book that Suzanne wrote.
01:44 It's this kind of idea of, like,
01:47 if you're taught from a young age
01:48 to distrust someone who is other than you,
01:51 what does that leave you with?
01:52 It leaves you with this feeling of, like,
01:54 other means bad, other means dangerous.
01:56 Other should be controlled.
01:58 And so Lucy Gray throughout the film tries to teach him
02:00 that he can trust something that is strange to him.
02:03 He doesn't have to innately fear or hate it.
02:06 And he tries, like, he really,
02:07 I think he tries through her.
02:09 But really the question you're left with
02:10 at the end of the film is, like,
02:12 is it too deeply baked into his being
02:14 to be able to get out of it?
02:16 And I think it's up to audiences
02:18 to walk away with that question themselves,
02:21 that answer, you know?
02:22 What are the Hunger Games for?
02:25 ♪ Are you, are you ♪
02:29 ♪ Coming to the truth ♪
02:32 The Hunger Games, they're to punish the districts.
02:38 Those tributes don't have a choice.
02:40 Your role is to turn these children into spectacles,
02:45 not survivors.
02:46 ♪ So we both feel free ♪
02:50 We're alive!
02:52 Smile, that's why we have teeth.
02:54 Imagine it was your name that they called.
02:58 ♪ Strange things do happen here ♪
03:01 I just wanna know that somebody still cared about me,
03:04 that I was still of value.
03:05 Welcome to the Capitol.
03:08 You look like you shouldn't be here.
03:09 I shouldn't, but I'm your mentor.
03:12 A rebel.
03:13 Well, Hessia also goes to, like, perspective and perception,
03:16 how he wants to perceive how he sees the world,
03:19 but how he thinks Lucy sees the world
03:22 and how she's perceived going in as, you know,
03:24 obviously a tribute.
03:26 Could you sort of talk about perspective and perception
03:28 in his world?
03:29 Because when he's inside, you know,
03:31 the watching them on the field versus on the ground
03:34 is two different things, of course.
03:36 - Yeah, I mean, well, he's grown up in a world
03:38 where perception is everything.
03:39 Like, how you're perceived is, you know,
03:43 like, absolutely tantamount
03:45 to how you will succeed in the world.
03:48 And he believes that to succeed in the world
03:50 and to, like, put food on the table for Tigris
03:53 and his grandmom, to do that,
03:55 he has to be perceived as powerful, strong,
03:57 in control, in power,
03:59 and he has to be in a position of power to do that.
04:01 And then he meets Lucy Gray, who tries to undo that
04:04 and says, "You can go live in a field and be happy.
04:06 "Like, you can go live in a shed,
04:08 "and as long as you've got food and loved ones,
04:10 "you can find happiness."
04:12 And I think what's kind of really fun about the film
04:15 is watching someone who,
04:16 even though you know how they end up,
04:18 you get to, like, root for him through the film
04:20 and say, like, "Oh, man, I really hope this guy
04:22 "learns to find happiness.
04:23 "I really hope he learns the true meaning of life
04:26 "through Lucy Gray and kind of be heartbroken
04:29 "when he maybe doesn't land there."
04:32 But yeah, like, I think the whole, like,
04:35 the whole capital, like, visual
04:37 and the whole thing that people love
04:38 about "The Hunger Games" and the capital itself
04:40 is, like, this idea of perception
04:42 and all the costumes and the trinkets
04:43 and how people, the things people use
04:46 to kind of hide their true selves,
04:48 which I think people see in society today, right,
04:50 is, like, you know, everything down to fashion
04:52 and how you present yourself is often, like,
04:56 a wall to protect yourself
04:58 from the outside world a little bit.
05:01 It's a very human thing, I think.
05:03 - That girl's not gonna win these games.
05:05 You saw her.
05:06 She's underfed, unstable.
05:08 - The dean said it's not just about winning.
05:10 - Everything is about winning.
05:12 If not the games now, then the crowd.
05:15 Lucy Gray won't survive a minute inside that arena.
05:19 So that means we have to make every second
05:20 before then count.
05:21 I'll get her to sing again.
05:25 - I wouldn't sing a note for you if I was her.
05:27 I wouldn't do anything at all, unless I could trust you.
05:31 - She's district, Tigress.
05:33 She knows we hate her and she wants us dead.
05:35 How am I supposed to get her to trust me?
05:37 - Imagine it was your name that they pulled
05:40 and you had been ripped from your home.
05:42 I just wanna know that somebody
05:43 still cared about me out here.
05:46 - Don't discount her just because she's district, Corey.
05:49 You might have more in common with her than you think.
05:52 - How physicality informs the emotionality
05:57 and back and forth.
05:57 You see his transformation,
05:59 but you also see when his mind is working.
06:02 Can you talk about that primality of him in a way?
06:06 'Cause the brain's working against
06:07 the actual instinct at times.
06:09 - Yeah, there's a passage in the book
06:11 that Suzanne Collins writes where she says
06:12 that he's the best in his class in the Capitol
06:15 at anything he does,
06:16 whether it's the physical or the mental.
06:18 But I think he almost thinks of the physical side
06:21 of himself as too primal.
06:24 It's not controlled, it's not poised.
06:27 It's not like, I don't know, he's like a cobra, right?
06:30 That's always watching and ready to snap.
06:33 But I think he thinks that to snap
06:35 is to lose control, right?
06:36 So I think it's really fun to play someone
06:39 who is so tightly wound and so protective
06:42 of their own perception that when something does happen,
06:46 such as when he's in the arena and has to defend himself,
06:49 or later on when he's in District 12
06:51 and certain things happen,
06:53 it's really fun to play someone who is like,
06:55 who breaks through that mold that they've made
06:58 for themselves and kind of loses control.
07:01 As an actor, it's just fun to play
07:03 with someone's expectations and then explode through them.
07:10 - Fueled with the terror of becoming prey.
07:12 See how quickly we become predator.
07:16 I want my enemies to see a rainbow of destruction
07:21 engulfing the world.
07:24 - You're monsters!
07:27 All of you!
07:28 - Good luck with that poor little songbird.
07:32 - Where is she?
07:33 - It's a mystery.
07:39 And mysteries have a way of driving people mad.
07:43 (screaming)
07:45 (dramatic music)
07:48 (dramatic music)
07:51 (dramatic music)