Sam Claflin on Finnick Odair and 'Catching Fire'

Sam Claflin spoke with Future Radio 107.8 and discussed portraying Finnick and his experience filming 'Catching Fire.'

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From Norwich Future Radio:

On The Books:

“Before I got the part? No, no. Funnily enough, when I first went to see the first The Hunger Games, the original, I had no idea that it was a trilogy. I had no idea it was based on books. I just knew there was a big hype around – you know it was being called the new Twilight. And what have you. So I think I was curious as to what this big thing, this… You know, I was very curious. And kind of got the audition for this part of Finnick Odair. I was in Los Angeles. I remember saying ‘Who the hell is this Finnick?’

On Finding Finnick:

“And I tried to go on Wikipedia and do as much research as possible prior to my first audition, and luckily I was kind of steered in the right direction by the casting director and the director himself. Between the moment that I was sort of offered the part and I was kind of trying to work out the smaller details as the contracts and what have you, I read the books and I read them in five days. Couldn’t quite help but turn the page and keep reading, you know, you can’t just put it down.”

On Fan Reaction:

“I mean, I’m a member of Twitter and, you know, specially when it was first announced there was a huge backlash. Some positive and some very negative, you know, people were like saying they want to kill themselves, that I wasn’t anywhere near a good looking Finnick. Everyone has their own perception of what a good-looking person is. And basically, all I can do is do my best and you know it’s – you have to kinda try not reading the bad press or whatever, you know?”

On Being Accident-Prone:

"This is actually questionable how much I can talk about ’cause I was specifically asked not to mention some of the accidents that happened there. Let’s just say I’m a very, very clumsy person. There was fall after fall after fall – I mean we basically, me and Francis, the director, we were laughing that there will be a whole DVD extra, you know, a whole DVD on its own for the blooper reel just for me. Because every time he’d say ‘Action’, you know just before he’d light the fire, I’d slip over or I’d fall – even when I’m standing still, I’d manage to fall over so um, there were plenty of accidents. My dad would probably tell you on the private.

We highly recommend listening to the entire 17-ish minute podcast HERE. Sam is charming, self-effacing and lovely. Shame on you, Twitterverse!