Here's how Hunger Games' Jason Schwartzman 'improvised' his scenes as Lucky Flickerman

21 November 2023, 15:22

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By Katie Louise Smith

"Francis gave me such freedom to come up with all these parts and bits and things, so they were sort of improvised but really, we came up with a lot of these things,"

As soon as Hunger Games fans heard that Lucky Flickerman, ancestor of the iconic Caesar Flickerman, was going to be in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, they were ready for whatever chaotic hosting shenanigans were headed their way. It's now safe to say that his depiction in the film adaptation well and truly paid off.

In Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, fans are introduced to Capitol weatherman Lucky as the first ever Hunger Games host – and Jason Schwartzman's performance is brilliant.

Lucky cancelling a dinner reservation because the games were taking longer than expected? Squeezing in a brief weather report before being interrupted by another death in the arena? "If you're going to vomit, do it off camera." Completely tone-deaf and out of touch considering the circumstances... but hilarious, if the social media reactions are anything to go by.

Now, Jason has revealed that a lot of Lucky's hilarious one-liners were unscripted. Here's how the actor 'improvised' his scenes in the film, with the guidance of director Francis Lawrence.

On the red carpet at the premiere, Jason spoke to Variety who asked him about his improvisational process when it came to delivering Lucky's quips and side comments while hosting the games.

While he clarified that it wasn't flat out "improvisation", a lot of those hilarious moments came from Jason himself, who was given freedom to change the script by director Francis Lawrence in order to come up with the majority of Lucky's interview and hosting dialogue.

"[Francis] gave me such freedom to come up with all these parts and bits and things, so they were sort of improvised but really, we came up with a lot of these things," Jason said. "He said just have something ready for every moment so that we could possibly cut to you."

"Me and Michael Lesslie, who's the writer, we wrote 50-something pages of ideas, and every morning and I’d go in with sheets of paper and talk to Francis at lunch. He’d pick everything. It wasn’t just like free-for-all. It was amazing."

Jason also had to learn magic in order to play Lucky, too. The weatherman-turned-Hunger Games host pulls out a handful of tricks throughout the movie, but after training with artist and magician, Tobias Dostal, Jason admits that he's still "terrible" at it.

Read more news about The Hunger Games here:

• Hunger Games' Jena Malone reveals Jennifer Lawrence was not actually there for elevator scene
• Does Lucy Gray die in The Hunger Games? Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes ending explained
• Hunger Games' Rachel Zegler explains how Lucy Gray is different to Katniss
• The Hunger Games is being adapted into a stage play in London
• Jennifer Lawrence is "100%" open to play Katniss again in a new Hunger Games movie

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