Sam Claflin and Jena Malone Talk Mockingjay in Empire's 2014 Movie Preview Issue
Molly Sat, January 4, 2014 
Image by John Wright
Image by Tesh/Corbis Outline
Sam Claflin and Jena Malone talk about Mockingjay and their characters Finnick Odair and Johanna Mason in Empire Magazine's 2014 Movie Preview Issue. Check out the article by Olly Richards:
When you're appearing alongside the most famous actress in the world right now, it's hard to steal much glory for yourself, but in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire both Sam Claflin and Jena Malone managed to wrestle just a little limelight from Jennifer Lawrence to become the sequel's breakout stars. And without warning to spoil anything, both are about to become even more significant in the final two films, in very different ways. Not that any of this is quite registering with Claflin, who plays the studly Finnick Odair, just yet.
"I'm still surprised they've picked me," he says, with a very British self-deprecation that is likely to serve him well in America. "Every time I see Francis I'm convinced he's not going to know who I am... I mean, I'm not the Finnick in the book. I've got brown hair, a beard, I'm a bit overweight, not 24 and I'm not seven foot... I was fully ready for the fans to hate me!"
Claflin has had a good warm-up to becoming a household name. After the old actorly cliche of a burgeoning football career truncated by injury, he slipped fairly easily into the romantic role in Snow White and The Huntsman, before The Hunger Games came calling. "It is weird that all those films are big, but I've done very little things that nobody's seen too," he says, absolutely determined that he not at any point celebrate his own achievements. "And honestly, nobody's recognizing me. Maybe it's because Finnick always has his top off. I've not been walking round much with my top off."
Mockingjay will see less nudity and more neurosis from Finnick. "I'm honestly so scared about saying anything at all, even though, as you say, the books are out there," say Claflin. "But you see more of Finnick. No, not like THAT. More of his reasons for being how he is. Oh, you know what I mean!"
Unlike Claflin, Jena Malone has had almost two decades of being recognized, starting her acting career at the age of 11 and working consistently since in everything from Stepmom to Donnie Darko to Sucker Punch. But more often than not she's been the good, sweet girl - something her Hunger Games incarnation, Johanna Mason, would find deeply off-putting.
Read more after the jump!
