On being cast in The Hunger Games

Liam got the call from Gary Ross, the director of The Hunger Games, about a year ago. “I was half asleep,” he says, using a seven-iron to stretch his back as we amble toward the first tee, “listening to the voice mail. He was like, ‘You did a great read. Do you want to come and do the movie?’ I was like, ‘Oh shit. Shit shit shit.’”

On the character of Gale

It’s Liam—not Jennifer Lawrence—who is this film’s ingenue, a pretty young thing watching the hero do battle. ”He’s so vital to understanding where she comes from,” says the film’s director, Gary Ross. “We need to feel for her and her connection to him.”

It’s hard to say how much pressure comes with fronting a franchise, especially when it could transform the guy who’s Thor’s brother and who walks Miley’s dog into Hollywood’s hottest young star. While Liam downplays such expectations, he concedes that he and his Hunger Games character share a certain helplessness. “Gale is someone who wants to stand up to this thing but can’t,” Liam says. “He’s pretty powerless.”