Donald Sutherland is a Hollywood legend with almost 200 IMDb credits to his name, including around 135 movies. He has been working since the early 60s, in roles such as The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes, MASH, Klute, as well as horror movie classics Don’t Look Now and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
But to a certain generation, his best-known role may be that of Coriolanus Snow in The Hunger Games action and adventure movies, which were released between 2012 and 2015. The Hunger Games had some acclaimed actors amongst its older cast members, such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, and Elizabeth Banks.
Speaking to GQ in 2014, Sutherland revealed that he actually lobbied for the role; “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.”
Sutherland continues; “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.”
A prequel movie which focuses on a young Coriolanus Snow, called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is due to be released later in 2023. Tom Blyth plays young Snow, Hunter Schafer plays his cousin Tigris Snow, and Rachel Zegler plays the District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird, who Coriolanus falls in love with. The film also stars Viola Davis, Jason Schwartzman, Peter Dinklage, Dakota Shapiro, and Josh Andres Rivera.
With the prequel movie coming up, we are currently experiencing a Hunger Games renaissance, with Twitter, TikTok and more going crazy for edits and theories regarding the original franchise.
If you’re a fan of all things Panem, check out our guide to the best fantasy movies.