The letter that landed Donald Sutherland his role in ‘The Hunger Games’
Donald Sutherland was one of the most thoughtful and electric performers of all time, with a sense of curiosity and authenticity that shone through every performance. Whether it be his captivating monologue in Oliver Stone’s JFK, his loving warmth in Pride and Prejudice or the infamous fruit market scene in Klute, in which the mere sight of his carefully selecting a peach is completely mesmerising, his filmography is overflowing with life and pure passion, with his innate sensitivity being apparent in every choice he makes.
After rising to fame in the 1970s, particularly after his work with Robert Altman in M.A.S.H, he worked with some of the most influential auteurs of the time, from the likes of Nicolas Roeg, Philip Kaufman or Robert Redford. As a result, he has one of the most vivacious filmographies of all time, with no challenge being too much for the actor as he blends from role to role with a fluidity as if he is simply playing an extension of himself. But while he might be considered the perfect person for many roles, there was one that he found in a rather unique way, with the actor personally writing to a director and explaining his interpretation of the character, and ultimately landing him the part.
Despite becoming known for his work in independent films, starring in beloved classics like Animal House, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and 1900, the actor made a turn towards the end of his career after being offered the role of President Snow in the globally successful Hunger Games franchise.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role and with a stellar ensemble cast that includes actors like Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the story follows a futuristic world divided into districts. The children from each district are forced to fight to the death in a deadly tournament each year.
While this might seem like the kind of world that Sutherland might not belong to, he was the perfect person for the role of the leader of a corrupt totalitarian government, something that spoke to him after his years of political activism and led him to write to the director, Gary Ross and explain his way.
The role was not initially offered to Sutherland, with the actor explaining, “Nobody asked me to do it. I wasn’t offered it. I like to read scripts, and it captured my passion. I wrote them a letter. The role of the president had maybe a line in the script. Maybe two. Didn’t make any difference. I thought it was an incredibly important film, and I wanted to be a part of it. I thought it could wake up an electorate that had been dormant since the ’70s. I hadn’t read the books. To be truthful, I was unaware of them. But they showed my letter to the director, Gary Ross, and he thought it’d be a good idea if I did it. He wrote those wonderfully poetic scenes in the rose garden, and they formed the mind and wit of Coriolanus Snow”.
The letter has since been published online, with the actor describing the elements of Snow that Sutherland believed were most relevant to our current world and its ties to the fight for democracy and equality. It is a lengthy letter, with Sutherland deeply analysing the character and his relationship to Katniss Everdeen, looking at the balance between power, order and fear both in the story and modern society. Ultimately, his passion and genuine fascination with the subject made him undeniably the right person to play someone as calculated as Snow, remaining one of the greatest villains of all time.
