How Rachel Zegler Became Lucy Gray Baird in 'The Hunger Games' 🕊🐍

[tillychar]

Click to view

Rachel Zegler discusses her journey to becoming Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, including...

How she initially turned the role down as it would require her to go straight to a long shoot in Poland and Germany after having just done a long shoot in London, without a chance to spend time at home. However,

Comments

[bodylikemind]

lol they finally reworked the story for her turning down the role and then taking it again, because francis and nina have said she turned them down for the reasons she said, and then they cast josh (also her bf) and they realized after the fact that he was her bf and then rachel called them back asking if it was too late

[sandstorm]

right lmao I was like "ok I know it's the internet but TV Tropes said the reason was different."

[quinnmorgendorf]

So Josh was actually cast first? That's funny, I assumed he was a nepo bf hire because Rachel was the lead. Not that he's not really cute and talented! I hope he has a long career.

And calling back to ask if the job was still available, very Rory Gilmore of her lol.

[tillychar]

she was offered the role first and turned it down because it would mean she’d be going straight from one months-long shoot in europe to another, and then he got cast and she changed her mind lol. so it might have been a bit of a nepo bf situation (if the studio realized casting him might make her jump on board) but it seems it worked out for everyone involved!

[violet_crumble9]

She looks much more like how katniss should have.

[aciren95]

That’s what I thought too as soon I saw her! I imagined Katniss as ‘ethnically ambiguous’ or specifically mixed indigenous ancestry. They made a point in the book about the “Seam” look so I took that to mean it was a non-white/“ethnic” look? I think in the first movie it looked like Jennifer Lawrence was even using self-tanner, right? It would have been nice to have a non-white woman as the female lead for the franchise so I was really annoyed with the casting news back then. Actually, I still am annoyed!

[violet_crumble9]

I still am too! and Lucy looks malnourished and starved like katniss was described. Movie katniss looked healthy...no amount of dirt rubbed on her cheeks changes that. The only HG casting decision I liked was rue tbh.

[skeetertuskin]

Tbf none of the kids/teens in the film looked malnourished whatsoever. Clearly the producers chose to overlook a very crucial part of the books.

[missyxxmisch]

ngl her acting during the singing parts was super cringe for me to watch. But I enjoyed the rest of her performance.

[monsterlovebosa]

I don’t know why but I found the signing to be annoying and fast forward through those parts .

[littlebones]

same. i didn't think the singing could get worse than it was in the book but she did it.

[buries]

I've really grown to love her lol. She's funny on Twitter. She was fantastic as Lucy Gray and I have been listening to the songs on repeat. (I rolled my eyes at the songs when reading the book, but she made them work.)

I'm unsurprised she praised Tom. I hope they work together again.

[smilla_sini]

I really enjoyed her in the movie (tbh everyone was very good, which isn't always the case) and followed her on ig after watching it. And let me tell you, sometimes she posts really interesting stuff in her stories (in addition to her singing vids which are gold by default).