Hunger Games’ Hunter Schafer on whether Panem is more or less LGBTQ-friendly than the world we live in today
Exclusive: "I feel the capital's like one of the metropolitan cities where being gay is 'what up' and the party. But then you go down South..."
Hunter Schafer has discussed the LGBTQ-friendliness of Panem in her new film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
The movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of America of the future, where 12 children from 12 impoverished districts are selected by citizens of the wealthy Capitol to fight to the death in a televised event.
The state of play for LGBTQ citizens is not explored in the film. However, speaking to Attitude, Euphoria star Hunter surmised that the situation for queer people in Panem is probably the same as for those living in America in 2023.
“The capital is like one of the metropolitan cities where being gay is ‘what up'” – Hunter Schafer
Asked if Panem is a ‘more or less LGBTQ-friendly place than the world we live in today,’ the 24-year-old said: “I think it’s giving something similar to America.
“In that I feel the capital is like one of the metropolitan cities where being gay is ‘what up’ and the party and everything. But then you go down South and you could get murdered. Maybe a similar vibe.”
In this prequel film, Hunter plays Tigris Snow, the cousin of Coriolanus Snow. Tom Blyth plays the younger, more innocent version of Coriolanus, who will one day become the tyrannical president of Panem.
“They’re cousins, but they function more like immediate family to each other,” explained Hunter of Tigris and Coriolanus. “They are each other’s caretakers since childhood.”
Hunter’s co-star Tom Blyth joined Hunter for her Attitude interview. “It’s a look back 64 years before the events of the original films at Corionalius Snow as a young 18-year-old,” he explained of the film. “His journey from boyhood into manhood into potential tyranny down the line. Really asking the question of, why does he become that way. And also other questions within that about love, life and family, and what it means to be ambition. Whether ambition can kill all of the good things of what it mans to be human.”