The prequel to the successful film series ‘The Hunger Games’ can be seen in German cinemas from today. “The ballad of songbirds and snakestells the prehistory of the Hunger Games and the later dictator and president Snow 64 years before the events of the original films. Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) meets Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the tribute from impoverished District 12. He becomes her mentor and becomes emotionally closer to her over the course of the brutal Hunger Games.
Warning, spoilers for “The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes” follow: After Lucy Gray wins the Hunger Games with the help of Coriolanus, she returns to District 12. While Snow had hoped to receive the scholarship to Capitol University he had hoped for for his tribute victory, he is instead accused of treason by Dean Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) for unfairly helping Lucy Gray. Therefore, he is banished from the Capitol and sent to District 12 as a peacekeeper.
What really happens between Lucy Gray and Snow?
There he meets Lucy Gray again and the two rekindle their relationship. Lucy Gray devises a plan to escape District 12 and Panem. Coriolanus wants to join her, but is torn as he follows her into the forest. One twist follows another and eventually Snow is bitten by a bat in the woods, whereupon he shoots Lucy Gray with a gun. The film doesn’t answer whether she survives.
In our interview about “The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes”. We asked leads Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler how they interpreted these final dramatic scenes between Coriolanus and Lucy Gray – and also whether they believe Lucy Gray will survive…
Tom Blyth: We probably have different views on it because our characters are so different too.
Rachel Zegler: I love that the whole thing remains a mystery. Lucy Gray already predicts in the lake scene and in her ballad that she might fly away. However, it remains uncertain and I don’t really know. I want her to survive. She is a fighter through and through, and it shows in her latest big performance. When she went to Snow [in der Hütte] says she is not made of sugar, this is her last performance.
Tom Blyth: And Snow sees that as a threat, even if Lucy Gray doesn’t even think so.
Rachel Zegler: But she’s done it before and he’s seen her do it before. He himself taught her that you have to perform to survive – and that is the irony of it all. So she does, and so I hope that her last attempt and her last performance are successful and that she manages to survive. But it has to be done [Romanautorin] Susanne [Collins] to decide.
Tom Blyth: It can be interpreted in different ways.
Rachel Zegler: [Suzanne hat zu mir gesagt], which we’ll talk about later. I always do that with the people who write my roles. I ask her: What happens next to my character? I’m always worried (laughs).
Tom Blyth: I wonder if Suzanne knows. I mean, she probably knows.
Rachel Zegler: Yeah, probably, but she probably wouldn’t just tell me that. So I don’t have too much hope for it.
Tom Blyth: It’s better for us not to know so we can be pleasantly surprised.
Rachel Zegler: About a new book, for example.
Tom Blyth: I think Coriolanus is the first person to really let Lucy Gray get to him, and at the same time that’s a big threat to him. There’s one line I really love: when he asks her if it’s all real. And also when he asks her at the lake who she wrote the song about. From his perspective, that is the core of the relationship between the two.
He is fascinated by her. It’s like nothing he’s ever seen or experienced before and that’s what makes the situation so threatening to him. He falls in love with her and at the same time wonders whether it is worth risking everything for her. To him it feels like he’s really doing that risking what he once worked and lived for. And so he almost sabotages himself because he’s looking for a reason to turn on her.
Tom Blyth: That’s exactly the gist of the story. Suzanne asks this question: Can you escape your nature or are you trapped within yourself? And what I love about it is that there is no answer. It gives the audience a chance to walk away from the film and decide for themselves and wonder what the answer to that might be.
Rachel Zegler: And that’s how you tell good stories.
The full FILMSTARTS interview with Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth about “The Hunger Games 5: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes” can be found here: