In theaters since Wednesday, “Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Serpent and the Songbird” looks back on the youth of Coriolanus Snow. Who succeeds Donald Sutherland in the role?
Introduced to the cinema in 2012 and originally carried by Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games has been back in theaters since November 15 with a fifth opus: The Ballad of the Serpent and the Songbird. It is actually a prequel, which takes place 64 years before the first four films in the saga. Francis Lawrence’s feature film focuses on the youth of Coriolanus Snow, who, while still a student, begins a journey that will lead him to the presidency of Panem. This opus also explores a turning point in the reconstruction of Panem, after the war, and the consolidation of its authoritarian regime.
Coriolanus Snow, antagonist of Katniss Everdeen in the previous films, was played by Donald Sutherland. In The Ballad of the Serpent and the Songbird, the public discovers the young version of the character, this time played by British actor Tom Blyth.
Metropolitan FilmExport Donald Sutherland in “The Hunger Games: The Rising: Part 2”
He was only fifteen years old when he began his career as an actor. He plays a small role in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. He then multiplied the number of short films and then landed his first major role in 2018 in Scott and Sid.
But it was thanks to the small screen that his career really took off, through the series Billy The Kid in which he played the title role. The series follows the legend of the American West, William “Billy the Kid” Bonney, from his humble roots to his decisive role in the Lincoln War. He is also in the credits of The Gilded Age which takes place in New York in the 1880s, marked by economic upheaval and a major conflict between the ancients and the moderns.
Metropolitan FilmExport
Tom Blyth opposite Rachel Zegler in ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Serpent and the Songbird’
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Serpent and the Songbird should allow him to explode in the eyes of the general public. The actor prepared for the auditions by reading the novel by Suzanne Collins, from which the film is based: “As soon as I read the first chapter, I was captivated. Coriolanus is an extremely complex character. He is first a troubled young man who fights for his family before being driven by dark ambitions” .
Producer Nina Jacobson says about it: “Tom was a revelation. It was very difficult to find an actor corresponding to Coriolanus. It was absolutely necessary that he be able to show his dark side and that we could also tell ourselves that he was likely to lean towards the well. And when we meet Tom Blyth, and discover the sincerity and precision of his playing, we have the feeling that he can indeed swing from one side to the other.”
The actor will be found in Siegfried’s Diaries by the late Terence Davies, where he plays Glen Byam Shaw, the friend of the poet Siegfried Sassoon.
Discover Tom Blyth, along with the rest of the cast, on AlloCiné: