Hunger Games Debrief

So I know I haven't posted about France yet, but that'll be a longer post anyway - I figured I'd have time enough for a short debrief on casting decisions for The Hunger Games.

I would like to note that I'm not going to talk too much about race/hair color in this post. Hair color can easily be changed, so obbviously any complaints on that front are stupid. In terms of the whole race debate, well, first let's agree not to get offended. Second, let's agree that we are not going to come up with complex theories, but instead assume that the less complicated the answer, the better.
So: Katniss is described as having "olive" skin, black hair, and grey eyes.
Her mother has blond hair and blue eyes. We can assume this means Caucasian.
We don't know what race her father is.

Many people in the Seam (located in Appalachia) have the same looks as Katniss. Appalachia has many people who are generally (ethnically) lots of different types of European with Native American thrown in sometimes.

So: Katniss is maybe a "person of color". More likely, in my opinion, she is mixed Caucasian with slightly darker skin. (Remember, olive skin does not equal person of color, it equals olive skin. Not all Caucasians are pasty-faced and stark white.)

All of the above reasoning applies to Gale too, since he looks like Katniss.

In short, it's possible that even a "white" actress like Jennifer Lawrence could look like Katniss - her hair will (hopefully) be dyed, and Katniss is usually pretty dirty, making skin color hard to get extremely specific about in the first place.

1. Katniss Everdeen - Jennifer Lawrence

  Honestly: I can picture this one working. It'll depend on her acting, but I can maybe see her pulling it off. Unfortunately, I haven't seen her in anything so no judgement there.

2. Peeta Mellark - Josh Hutcherson

This one I'm almost completely okay with. I like Josh Hutcherson; I haven't seen The Kids Are All Right, but I've heard good things, and I liked him fine in Bridge to Terabithia.
He definitely has the solid, steady look that I envisioned for Peeta.

3. Gale [...something...] - Liam Hemsworth

...not sure how I feel about this one. He looks like a gorilla.

Not actually, but he does have the vague look of an ape. And also not appropriate for Gale - who should have been more brood-y and darker. Also, I didn't really picture Gale as being a...giant neck, football-y type of guy, more of an understated muscle-y guy - Peeta was always more traditional muscle man in my mind, while Gale was....I don't know. More subtle-strong.

In conclusion: the only one I'm not fully okay with is Gale.