Hunger Games Gets a Cinna

Wait…Who?

I love the way Lionsgate has gone about casting The Hunger Games.  An excellent but not widely typecast actress in Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss.   Two fairly well known but not overexposed actors as the male leads Peeta and Gale and a whole host of newcomers as the other tributes.

The adult cast is marked by a combination of  up and comers like Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane and Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket and stellar established talents like Stanley Tucci as Ceasar Flickerman and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch.

Now they’ve cast my favorite adult role – that of Cinna, the stylist who becomes Katniss’ confidant.  It’s not a huge role, but it’s an important one and it’s going to Lenny Kravitz.

I didn’t see that one coming.

According to Rolling Stone, director Gary Ross made the choice after seeing the movie Precious.  Kravitz plays a nurse who apparently embodies the qualities of Cinna.  Okay.  But I was really hoping to see an actor with a serious pedigree in this role.  You know, someone we know can act.  Aside from his role in Precious, the only thing he’s acted in is The Rugrats Movie back in 1998.  He was the voice of the newborn baby.  I’m not kidding.

This is the first bit of casting that leaves me a little cold.  Not because he sucks, but because he has no real track record and could easily suck as one of my favorite characters.  This character is supposed to be very subdued in both actions and appearance, thing I don’t much associate with Kravitz.  If he bursts into song at any point I will weep.  Maybe Stanley Tucci will give him acting lessons during lunch breaks.

I’m not happy about this piece of the Hunger Games cast, but sincerely hope Kravitz proves me wrong and knocks it out of the park.  It doesn’t dim my enthusiasm for the film, either.  I’ll be there with the rest of the 14-year-old girls waiting to see the Games come to the big screen.  I saw Jennifer Lawrence on Letterman the other night and she showed an amazing picture of herself as Katniss.  Her hair is dark like it’s supposed to be and she is perfect – long braid, bow and arrows and all.  It was completely awesome.

That’s right.  I’m a fangirl.

photo by Jose Cruz

Sue Millinocket

Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills  She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.