Before the story of The Hunger Games, the hard-living Haymitch Abernathy was the only living victor of the games from District 12 in the 50th year of the event. Every 25 years there is a Quarter Quell edition of The Hunger Games, and usually includes a devilish twist.
In the second Quarter Quell, four Tributes instead of the usual two were chosen from each District. Upon being asked what he thought about there being much more competition than usual, Haymitch remarked to the crowd that he didn’t care, as they would all be just as stupid as usual.
It ended up being down to Haymitch and one of the female Tributes from District 1. It was a violent fight, leaving them both injured – him with a slashed stomach by an axe and her with a serious eye injury. She was eventually killed by an axe to the head after Haymitch used the arena’s force field shield to his advantage. President Snow was unhappy with the tactic, and ended up having Haymitch’s brother and girlfriend killed. Following his win and his family tragedy he turned to alcohol.
Haymitch’s first appearance in the book is his drunken appearance during the Reaping. His drunken and angry demeanour didn’t exactly endear himself to Peeta and Katniss, but he quickly realises that these two have a good chance at competing in the Hunger Games. He offers them a deal – he will teach them everything that he knows, but only if they don’t interfere with his drinking habits.
Haymitch quickly becomes impressed with Katniss’s skill and bravery, and decides to help her further during the Games rather than Peeta, as only one is meant to survive. However, he forges an inventive and daring manipulative plan designed to keep the pair of them alive by convincing the Capitol that their rebellion is borne out of love for each other.
Haymitch is played by Woody Harrelson. Director Gary Ross said: ‘Haymitch is such an unforgettable character: funny cranky outrageous, sarcastic, impatient, biting but ultimately kind. I’m so grateful we have Woody Harrelson to play him. I can’t wait for us to get to work.’
Style is such a big subject in The Hunger Games, so it meant hard work for the film’s hair stylist.
Linda Flowers told Seventeen: ‘Elizabeth Banks, who plays Effie, her hair was a challenge because the books describe her hair as having a lot of colours, like orange and aqua. I wanted to make sure it looked really beautiful and couture-style, not like a Halloween party. It has to look right on screen or else we lose people in believing that this is a really sophisticated and advanced culture of people.’
Asked about the men’s hairstyles in the movie, she added: ‘We put a lot of wigs on guys. I was using anywhere between 400 and 450 wigs and hair extensions on set. For example, Stanley Tucci, who plays Caesar Flickerman, had a blue wig, just like in the book. Almost everybody had something! You would think that the guys would be easy, but they weren’t, especially in the Capitol. And Josh Hutcherson’s hair had to be coloured blonde, which is a bleaching process and Hemsworth’s hair had to go darker.’
Cherry Petenbrink, the film’s hair colourist, told TheHob.org that the casting of Josh Hutcherson as Peeta caused upset from fans at first because he was a brunette instead of a blonde, as described in the books. She said: ‘As soon as I met Josh at my studio I knew he was perfect for the role of Peeta, really charming and charismatic! One problem, Peeta was described in the books as a sandy blonde while Josh was a dark brunette. I definitely had my work cut out. It was clear based on the vision of Director Gary Ross his hair could not be yellow or orange. I decolorised in two separate visits, and didn’t want to alert paparazzi either. The goal was to achieve sandy ash blonde but not trash his hair. Everyone was thrilled with the end result. But of course, I did return Josh to his natural colour when The Hunger Games wrapped!’