Originally appeared on E! Online
Josh Hutcherson nearly traded in Peeta Mellark’s apron for a spider suit.
The “Hunger Games” actor reflected on the time he was almost cast as Peter Parker in 2012’s “The Amazing Spider-Man,” which ultimately went to Andrew Garfield.
“A few months before I got cast in Hunger Games, I was in the running to be Spider-Man,” Hutcherson, 33, explained in the Dec. 8 episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s “Dinner’s on Me” podcast. “I got told ‘no’ which, as a teenager, was heartbreaking because I obviously wanted to be Spider-Man. But then, I was cast in the Hunger Games. That was the craziest turn of events.”
He continued, “Hunger Games came out of nowhere. It just changed everything.”
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But Hutcherson still remembers how hard he worked for his close call with the Marvel role. Last January, he revealed that “one of my friends” who formerly worked as his stunt double helped him prepare for his audition.
“He and I went down to this stunt training gym,” he explained to Wired at the time. “We decided to shoot me doing some Spider-Man stunts, but I didn’t get it.”
Indeed, this rejection opened the door to Hutcherson’s entry into District 12. He starred in the franchise’s four films — “Hunger Games,” “Catching Fire,” and the two-part “Mockingjay” sequels — alongside Jennifer Lawrence (who led as Katniss Everdeen) and Liam Hemsworth (Gale Hawthorne). And while he’s not as involved in the prequel movies, he still remembers his time on set for the original films.
In fact, the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” actor admitted that he faced some personal downsides while working on the final movie.
“I was like, ‘F–k that,’” he told Variety in November. “I got thrust into a place of notoriety that I never dreamed of, never wanted. It took privacy from me.”
Though Hutcherson wasn’t prepared for that new level of fame, he’s grown accustomed to feeling comfortable in the spotlight. And with him finding that balance, he noted that he’s open to reviving his “Hunger Games” character in any future sequels.
“I would love to be back on set with [director] Francis [Lawrence], with Jen, with Liam, with Woody [Harrelson],” he said. “It would not take any convincing at all. I’d be there in a heartbeat.”
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” stars Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Josh Andrés Rivera and Hunter Schafer and director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson answer burning questions from our audience full of superfans, including who would be the sole survivor and first one out IRL, and what they would each do as their special talent to get a sponsor.
