Hunger Games Movie Trivia (Did You Know That?)

Here is a list of trivia you must know about our favorite film "The Hunger Games."

Did you know that?

Jennifer Lawrence dyed her hair black to play our mockingjay Katniss Everdeen?

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss

As Peeta Mellark (the boy with the bread), Josh Hutcherson dyed his hair blonde to bring the character in life.

Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark

Like Jennifer, Liam Hemsworth also darkened his hair to portray Gale Hawthorne, Katniss' best friend and hunting partner.

Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne

Canadian actor Alexander Ludwig initially auditioned for the role of Peeta Mellark but was lost to Josh Hutcherson. However, he was later cast as Cato, a career tribute from District 2, who happens to be Katniss' nastiest enemy.

Alexander Ludwig as Cato

Like Alexander Ludwig, Liam Hemsworth first read the script for the role of Peeta Mellark, but later, he was cast as Katniss' hunting partner Gale Hawthorne.

The Hunger Games film was shot in North Carolina - Asheville, Charlotte, Shelby, and Wilmington.

Chloë Grace Moretz, Mary Mouser, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Lyndsy Fonseca, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Roberts, Kaya Scodelario, Emily Browning and Shailene Woodley were considered to play Katniss, the lead role. Jennifer Lawrence beat them all.

Actresses who auditioned for Katniss

Isabelle Fuhrman also auditioned for the role of Katniss but was turned down because she was too young. A couple of days later she received an offer to play Katniss' brutal girl rival Clove (Cato's partner from District 2) and accepted it.

Isabelle Fuhrman as Clove

Alex Pettyfer, Lucas Till, Nico Tortorella, Alexander Ludwig, Evan Peters and Hunter Parrish were considered to play Peeta Mellark. Hutcherson was later cast.

Actors who auditioned for Peeta

Liam Hemsworth, Chris Massoglia, David Henrie, Robbie Amell and Drew Roy were considered to play Gale. Hemsworth was ultimately cast.

Actors who auditioned for Gale

Jennifer Lawrence was initially cast as the lead in Savages, but dropped out to do this film instead. 

The budget for the Hunger Games movie is $80 million, most expensive production ever for Lionsgate. 

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth were already contracted to retain their roles in the entire franchise, which will be composed of four films with Mockingjay to be split in two parts.

Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth

Jennifer Lawrence's (Katniss) salary for the first Hunger Games film is $500,000 plus “escalators,” bonuses based on the movie’s performance.

Liam Hemsworth was told by his brother Chris Hemsworth (Thor) to lose weight for the movie since it's called the Hunger Games, not Eating Games.

Hemsworth brothers

It took three days before Jennifer Lawrence finally say "yes" to take the role of Katniss Everdeen. The size of the decision, according to her, was terrifying. 

The production of the Hunger Games almost halted when Jennifer Lawrence was brought to the hospital because of an injury while training for wall climbing.

The Hunger Games breaks Twilight Saga: Eclipse's advance ticket sales at Fandango's nearly 12-year history -- which is especially impressive for a March release and a non-sequel.  

The Hunger Games breaks Twilight Saga: Eclipse's advance ticket sales at Fandango

The Hunger Games earned $155 million on its opening weekend in the US, the third best opening ever -- after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($169.1 million) and The Dark Knight ($158 million).

Hunger Games did very well in the US box office

 The Hunger Games remains number 1 in the US box office for four weeks.

Composer Danny Elfman left the film due to a scheduling conflict and was replaced by James Newton Howard.

Despite its high popularity with teenagers and adults, Lionsgate has admitted that the chances of Catching Fire and Mockingjay being converted into films all depend on the money that 'The Hunger Games' makes.

The name of the main character, Katniss, is derived from the name of a group of edible plant species, genus "Sagittaria", commonly known as "arrowhead". This is a reference to the character's archery skills.

The fictional nation in the film is called Panem. This is derived from "Panem et Circenses," or "Bread and Circuses," which comes from the latter days of the Roman Empire, in which the government would keep the masses satisfied not by performing their public services well, but by providing violent and deadly entertainments for the people to watch, which is rather fitting for the subject matter of the film.

The director has stated that his decision to go with shaky cam work, "had a lot to do with [the] urgency of what's going on and [to reflect protagonist Katniss Everdeen's] point of view."

The design for the Cornucopia was inspired by the work of architect Frank Gehry.

the Cornucopia

This is not the first time actors Jennifer Lawrence and Paula Malcomson (Katniss and Mrs Everdeen) have worked together playing mother and daughter. The previous time was in the "Cold Case"(2003)_ episode, 'A Dollar, A Dream' in which Malcomson plays a homeless mother struggling to support her two children.

Katniss and her mother

During a New York Magazine interview, Wes Bentley said that the extremely unusual beard he wore as Seneca was styled from his own real beard, not created from applied pieces or extra hair. Bentley said that while he was in North Carolina filming the movie, he would often go to the local Target (a national department store chain) to buy things like baby formula while still sporting the "Seneca beard."

Wes Bentley as Seneca

The second movie in two years (after Winter's Bone) in which Jennifer Lawrence plays a character who feeds her destitute family and herself partly by catching and killing squirrels.

While horsing around on the set, Jennifer Lawrence accidentally kicked Josh Hutcherson in the head, knocking him out and resulting in a concussion.

The four-note melody that Katniss uses as her signal with Rue (and that plays at the end of most trailers) is G-Bb-A-D.

Though she appeared in all three books, and was featured prominently in the movie, actress Elizabeth Banks's character's name, Effie Trinket, was never mentioned in the movie.

Elizabeth Banks spent 45 minutes every day having manicures done on her fingers.

Alexander Ludwig worked out for four hours a day with a US Navy Seal to get into shape for his role as Cato. Same thing with Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth for their roles as Peeta and Gale, respectively.

Although it is mentioned briefly that Gale has had his name put into the drawing multiple times, it is not fully explained in the movie why someone might want to do this other than when Katniss tells Prim when she comes to say goodbye not to put her name in more because it's not worth getting enough food. Each additional time a name is entered raises the possibility that the person will be selected to compete, and probably die, in the Games. In the source novel, it is explained that putting your name in an additional time garners your family an additional portion of grain and oil, so families experiencing especially terrible privation may put their children's names into the drawing more than once in exchange for that small amount of extra food.

Effie and the Reaping bowl

In an interview with Slate, Elizabeth Banks said that she based Effie Trinket's voice on the voice that Rosalind Russell used while playing the title character in the 1958 movie Auntie Mame.

Wilhelm scream: can be heard from one of the victims when Katniss Everdeen cuts off a tree branch and the nest of tracker jackers fall onto some of her opponents.

Katniss cutting the tracker jackers' nest

May the odds be ever in your favor.

If you've got any trivia that you wanted to share about the Hunger Games movie, feel free to state it in the comments box below. Thank you.