Interview: Tom Blyth Chats Playing Coriolanus Snow in ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’
Many The Hunger Games fans know the name, Coriolanus Snow. Played by Donald Sutherland in The Hunger Games movie trilogy, Tom Blyth is now stepping in to play the younger version of the devious president of Panem in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
We got the chance to hear from Blyth regarding taking on the role from Sutherland, his approach to playing Coriolanus, music he listened to while filming, and so much more. Check out what he had to say below.
On whether he was a fan of the original series or movies: “I was a huge fan of the original films. I went to see them every opening weekend growing up. I hadn’t read the original books much to my regret when I got this part. It turned out to be a good thing, because I then didn’t have to infect my brain with all this stuff that comes 64 years later. But obviously I then read this book and fell in love with the writing. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, I have to go back and read those original books.’ So next on the list is to rewind and go back and read all the others.”
On taking on the role of Corio, originated by Donald Sutherland in the original film trilogy: “The part of Corio to me was just like an absolute dream come true because as a fan of those original films, watching what Donald Sutherland did with him, that was kind of like deliciously evil, and then getting to rewind the history tapes and look at kind of why he became like that. It was an absolute dream for me as an actor.”
On whether he felt like he had to recreate Donald Sutherland’s performance with his performance: “I had to refrain myself from kind of like going down the rabbit hole of watching all those movies again and watching his performance again. Obviously the first instinct I had was to try and kind of recreate it somehow, or to nod to it in kind of like a savvy way. But the thing is, that’s never gonna be slick. It’s never gonna be savvy. Everyone’s gonna say it feels like you’re copying a performance that has already been great. And you can’t because the minute as an actor you try to recreate anything that works, whether it’s something you’ve done or something another actor has done, it’s the death of spontaneity, and you just can’t recreate. It has to be fresh and it has to be in that moment. And it can only live in that moment. So very early on, I kind of put that to the side.”
On how approached playing Coriolanus: “Francis [Lawrence] and I talked about making my own, and also asking what drives him now as opposed to what drives him later on when he’s president and a dictator and a tyrant. Because he is a different character in this movie and in this book. He’s a character who is a brother and a grandson and a student, and an ambitious kid who wants to do well in his life. And then by the end of the movie, he’s something totally different because of his relationship with Lucy Gray, and because of his relationship to the Capitol in general, and what he sees and what he learns. And the beauty of the film is that you get to see that transition in real time, and that’s what draws me to him so much as a character. And I think what the fans are drawn to as a character is seeing that he’s not just one thing. Yeah, he ends up as a tyrant, but 64 years before that, he was something else entirely. And the interesting part is seeing what he goes through to get there. By the end, I wanted him to be more like the President Snow that we know. But at the beginning, he’s something completely different younger. I just keep saying I hope that by the end of the film, you see kind of three distinct Corios. You got, like, Corio the boy, Coriolanus who’s becoming a man, and, like, Coriolanus Snow, the future president. And I think, hopefully you kind of see his body and his voice change with that.”
On when he met costar, Josh Andres Rivera: “We were the earliest scenes up at the very beginning, so we were in Berlin, Josh and I, doing our fittings and stuff together and we met at a fitting for the first time. After that, We went to see some movies. We went to a Leon Bridges gig together in Berlin.”
On a memorable time from filming: “There is one that sticks out where, towards the end of the shoot, we, Josh and I, were filming this scene. Actually, one of the earlier scenes in the movie, which is the Reaping Day scene, where all the students and mentors are gathered and then told that it’s the Reaping Day and that we’re being given mentees, basically. And in the scene originally, he was supposed to give me some cookies because he realizes that Corio is hungry and that his family aren’t doing that well, even though they’re keeping up appearances. And Josh, every time went to give me the little packet of cookies. And I’d put my hand out to reach them and it would feel really light. And I’d be like, ‘Okay, great. I’m supposed to eat them in the scene.’ And I go to open it, and there’s no cookies left because Josh has been eating them on set. We must’ve done 12 takes of this one bit of coverage. And every time. They were peanut butter, which actually, he was saving my life because I have a mild peanut allergy, so maybe that’s what it was. But every time, I was surprised and I thought there was gonna be cookies in, and every time there wasn’t.”
On music he would listen to while filming: “I have a pretty extensive Corio playlist. Music’s a big way in for me. ‘Money Power Glory’ by Lana Del Rey is the first song on the playlist. And then it goes to ‘Eleanor Rigby’ by the Beatles because that song has always, since I was a kid, just made me feel really kind of kooky and crazy. It feels unhinged. And so, when he undergoes his transformation, that was a big one. When Corio’s kind of feeling epic and like royalty, my music goes all over the place.”
On what set, prop, or costume blew him away: “The Hob as a location, for me was just next level art direction. It was so well done. And what I love about reading a book and then seeing a film adaptation is that sometimes it totally meets your expectation and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s exactly it.’ It’s like, cathartic because it’s exactly what you had in your mind. And then sometimes your expectation is challenged and you see something that you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s not what I thought at all. It’s even better. It’s even cooler.’ And the Hob, for me, was like a moment where I went, ‘Oh, I could never have imagined this in my wildest dreams.’ I originally thought it was a marketplace with a little shack where the music is played when I read it. But actually, Uli Hanisch, art director/production designer, he set it, and scouted this great location set it in a steel mine in Duisburg, Germany. And it was down in the depths of this mine. And then they put the marketplace in there, and the stage in there, so it kind of echoed and had all this cool paraphernalia. That some of which, you recognize from the first films, and some of it’s new. But that was a cool moment for me.”
On his own personal strategy to win The Hunger Games: “I think I like in the movies, in the original franchise, when Peeta does the face paint. And I like to think I could do that, but I definitely couldn’t. So, I probably would rely on my climbing skills because I’m pretty good at climbing, so I’d probably climb trees.”
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will hit theaters tomorrow, November 17!
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate