The Hunger Games’ Tom Blyth and Hunter Schafer on Panem fashion and how Jules from Euphoria would fare in the film

Tom Blyth and Hunter Shafer have talked all things Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in a new interview with Rolling Stone UK.

The new film tells the origin story of Cornelius Snow, the tyrannical leader of Panem, an area in post-apocalyptic America in which children from 12 impoverished districts are selected by citizens of the wealthy Capitol to fight to the death in a nationally televised event.

Tom plays a younger version of Cornelius, before he was corrupted by power, while Euphoria star Hunter plays Cornelius’s cousin, Tigris.

“For me, it’s why I like this franchise,” said Tom when asked about the film’s themes of equality. “It’s the thing that draws me to it. Even as a teenager. Big action sequences and great relationships and characters, but also, it’s asking larger questions about what it means to be human, with other humans around you. And what it means to follow rules that were set by some other human.”

Hunter added: “I think the entire franchise is less about saying something and more about asking questions. […] I hope people see themselves in Corio and then watch what happens to him. I think that’s a reality that this film is portraying. ‘It could be you!’”

Elsewhere, Tom described the trouser-skirt hybrid he wears as a young Cornelius Snow as a “power skirt.”

“I loved wearing the kilt-skirt thing,” he added. “Through this movie I’ve definitely got more into fashion … I’m definitely now a kilt guy, for sure.”

“I did steal a few trinkets,” he continued. “I have the academy badge, and a few other bits like that.”

Hunter also reflected on who would fare better in the cutthroat world of the Hunger Games: her, or her Euphoria character Jules.

“You know what, probably Jules,” she replied. “The kitchen knife scene? She’s crazy! She’s a crazy bitch!” 

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be released in UK cinemas on 17 November 2023.