“Mockingjay” stars Natalie Dormer and Sam Claflin are no doubt thrilled to be a part of the blockbuster “Hunger Games” series, but that doesn't mean working on the films was always a walk in the park. When I asked the actors about one sequence in particular — an extended fight to the death in a labyrinth of waterlogged underground tunnels — they didn't mince words.
“Imagine Hell, and we were probably just a step below that,” said Claflin of filming the sequence. “It was really, really tough. It was really, really, really, tough. Brutal is probably the word that I'd use.”
Added Dormer: “It was just that it was three weeks in water, so we kept getting wet. It was like standing on towels in front of heaters. And they tried to warm the water a bit for us, which just meant that it was also a very humid atmosphere, very moist. It was dark, a bit claustrophobic…but Francis Lawrence did a good job at trying to keep our morale up.”
For Dormer, who also stars as Margaery Tyrell on HBO's “Game of Thrones,” “Mockingjay” only increased her already-heightened public profile: “I kind of had an introduction to [fame] with 'Thrones.' I was already operating at a reasonable level of craziness. And then 'Hunger Games' just topped my glass up to full-on craziness.”
For all that and more, watch the full interview with Dormer and Claflin above and below.
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” is in theaters today.