When auditioning for the role of a younger Haymitch in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel film, Sunrise on the Reaping, Joseph Zada had some competition.
In an interview with People magazine, Zada’s We Were Liars costar Emily Alyn Lind recalled talking to him when he was auditioning for the coveted role.
“So, I was FaceTiming him because he was like, ‘I’m in L.A.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you doing in L.A., loser? Let’s hang out,’ ” Emily Alyn Lind said. “And I FaceTime him and he is at this hotel and he’s being Joe. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m out here. You can’t tell anyone but it’s down to me and a couple [other] people for this Hunger Games thing.’”
“And I was like, ‘Oh, no fucking way. That’s so sick,’ ” Lind added. “And he’s naming names that are really big that he’s up against.”
Though Lind didn’t name the other contenders, she said she knew Zada would land the role: ”I’m like, ‘You’ll get it, because you’re you.’”
“He just gets what he wants,” she said of Zada. “He is going to be one of these guys.”
“When I met Joe, I was just like, he has that thing. And I’ve seen so many kids go in and out of the doors and they have the thing or they don’t have the thing, and he has the thing. He’s going to be the kid that blows up and I’m so happy for him.”
Zada stars alongside Lind in the Prime Video series adaptation of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars.
Following the Songbirds and Snakes prequel, which explored the early life and rise of villainous tyrant President Coriolanus Snow, Lionsgate will chronicle fan favorite Haymitch (portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the films), who later acted as a mentor in the Hunger Games to heroine Katniss Everdeen, in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Zada will portray the younger Abernathy in the upcoming prequel.
Sunrise on the Reaping revisits the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell, when Haymitch competes.
Other cast members announced include Whitney Peak, Mckenna Grace, Jesse Plemons, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Maya Hawke, Lili Taylor, Ben Wang, Ralph Fiennes, Elle Fanning, Kieran Culkin, Glenn Close and Billy Porter.
Lawrence will direct the latest Hunger Games installment.