Donald Sutherland hopes ‘The Hunger Games’ will make young people more politically active.
The 79-year-old actor believes that the franchise – which sees a series of districts attempt to overthrow a dictatorship – is inspiring for youngsters, and hopes it will encourage Americans to vote in the presidential election in two years’ time.
At a press conference on Sunday (09.11.14), the star told BANG Showbiz: "I hope that these four films cause young people to go to the voting booths and vote in 2016, and choose somebody, anybody, who will satisfy them, and vote for them, because if they don’t, we’re lost."
The star plays Panem ruler President Coriolanus Snow in the franchise and explained that he only agreed to act in the series of films – based on the novels by Suzanne Collins – because of the political message of social change which builds throughout the movies.
He explained: "When I came aboard this project, I came aboard it for one specific reason – I thought that it could be a catalyst for young people who had been dormant for a generation or two, particularly in the United States.
"I hope that this film will in some way create or help generate a leader. Put young people together in a way that they’ll understand, for example, that the character that I play is an oligarch which exists, particularly in the United States but certainly in the Western world, and they need to be brought to account. And I hope that these films will educate people about that.
"I have to be truthful, I’m waiting for the release of ‘Mockingjay Part 2’ and I’m hoping by that time that audiences everywhere around the world, of young people, will recognise their obligation to change the government, just so long as it happens before 2016."
Donald Sutherland hopes Hunger Games encourages people to vote
