“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” director Francis Lawrence was adamant about not using CGI to attempt to recreate a Philip Seymour Hoffman performance.
During an interview with The Huffington Post, Lawrence explained he didn’t feel comfortable using technology to finish Hoffman’s remaining scenes. Lawrence felt he would never be able to make it authentic to the actor’s physical onscreen presence.
“He was constantly sort of grinding away at a scene and was able to dig down and down and down, deeper and really find the dynamics of the relationships that he’s in,” Lawrence told HuffPost. “And then once you’ve done that process then you don't really need many takes at all with him.”
Lawrence claimed the decision wasn’t a difficult one to make for the production. He respected Hoffman’s work and didn’t want to use CGI to try and recreate it.
“He had two scenes with dialogue that were left and we decided we didn't want to try any digital trickery with him, so we rewrote his scenes and gave the dialogue to other actors,” he said.
Lawrence added, “I just think to try to fake a Philip Seymour Hoffman performance would have been catastrophic and I would never want to do that.”
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” takes place right after the 75th Quarter Quell Games. The tributes in the arena helped Katniss escape at the cost of her trust. Now, the heroine is more confused than ever, but makes tough decisions for the good of the people of Panem.
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” will be released to theaters on Nov. 21.
