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Tom Blyth wants Hunger Games fans to "fall in love" with Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

21 November 2023, 11:57

Rachel Zegler & Tom Blyth Try To Name Every Hunger Games Tribute | The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

By Sam Prance

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is Coriolanus' Snow's villain origin story.

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Tom Blyth has explained that he wants Hunger Games fans to "fall in love" with Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.

Just like the book, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes follows a young Coriolanus Snow. In the movie, he acts as a mentor to District 12 tribute Lucy Gray in the 10th Hunger Games long before he becomes the villain we know him as today. Is he a kind, innocent, young man though, or was he already showing the seeds of what he would become?

Well, Tom Blyth, who plays Snow, has revealed that he intended for you fall in love with Snow when he was playing him.

Tom Blyth wants Hunger Games fans to "fall in love" with Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Picture: SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Live News, Lionsgate

Speaking to The Wrap, Tom said that the purpose of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is to "hold a mirror up to society and say, why do we do what we do?" He added: "For me, there’s nothing more interesting than doing that about someone who I can’t, in my life, relate to. But through the art and the storytelling I get to at least try and understand him a little bit better."

Snow gradually gets darker in the film and Tom wanted to showcase that. He said: "By the end of the film, you get to really see the change. I want people to be heartbroken by it in the way that I was when I read the book. You want to fall in love with him and be absolutely fuckking heartbroken when he breaks bad and becomes his darker self."

He ended by saying: "And we should be able to relate a little bit, even though we don’t want to."

Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Picture: Alamy

As for how he approached playing Snow, Tom said: "I definitely had to undergo a process of forgetting what I already knew about the older President Snow. Because if you go in judging him from the start, you’re not giving this version of the character a fair chance for the story to be told."

He continued: "So at this point, he is this 18-year-old kid in the Capitol trying to get by."

What do you think? Did you "fall in love" with Snow?