Guys on fire

Guys on fire

We get close to the heart-throbs from The Games: Catching Fire. And Liam Hemsworth got us feeling the heat.

His brother Chris is the one with the big Thor arms, but Liam Hemsworth is not one to mess with either.

He's got beautiful baby blue eyes, but when he trains them on someone asking a question which he finds perhaps boring or, worse, insulting, he stares. Intently.

In The Hunger Games movies, the 23-year-old Australian actor plays Gale Hawthorne, who gets caught in a love triangle between childhood friend and heroine Katniss Everdeen and her fellow victor Peeta Mellark.

He doesn't smile too often for the role - it is, after all, a dark allegory about power and politics - but surely the person whom we met at Four Seasons Los Angeles, could have been a little more amenable? Uh, yeah, no.

We blame you, Miley Cyrus.

We present four ways not to piss off Hemsworth during an interview...

DON'T MISPRONOUNCE HIS NAME

One French journalist pronounces his name Lie-am.

"Lee-am, it's Lee-am," Hemsworth corrects him without batting an eyelash.

LAUGH AT EVERY SILLY THING

Paired with actor Woody Harrelson, who plays former Hunger Games victor Haymitch Abernathy in the movies, Hemsworth takes every opportunity to not answer questions directly and just muck around with his co-star.

Asked about new director Francis Lawrence taking over the reins from the first movie's Gary Ross, he offers a standard response about how the former came in and "fit in with this whole group".

Harrelson then puts on a big, pointless play about how he didn't even realise there was a new director, while Hemsworth eggs him on.

Polite giggles.

Later, they both raise up their legs to show off mismatched (Harrelson) and bright pink and green (Hemsworth) socks to the journalists at the table.

More polite tittering.

DON'T COMPARE HIM WITH HIS BROTHER

The question asked is: "How do you feel about having stepped out of your brother's shadow with the success of The Hunger Games?"

"I'd like to think I was never in any shadow," is the icy answer.

For the record, he is "supportive" of both his older brothers' work - 30-year-old Chris is the aforementioned Thor, while 32-year-old Luke is in long-running Australian soap Neighbours.

"They're my best friends."

DON'T ASK ABOUT HIS LOVE LIFE

A Mexican journalist ventures anyway, because Hemsworth has been rumoured to be seeing actress-singer Elza Gonzalez, 23, who is Mexican.

The pair were spotted kissing just days after his engagement to US singer Miley Cyrus, 20, was called off, reportedly because of her increasingly wild behaviour on and off stage. She's since penned him an apology.

The journalist starts off simply enough - are you single?

"Yes, I am," he responds, a bit short.

The gaze never goes away, so she apologises for the question.

"I accept your apology."

Will he accept Cyrus'?

You try asking him that.

Josh Hutcherson, who portrays Peeta, is now less impulsive

Peeta Mellark was a scared boy in 2012's The Hunger Games.

Picked randomly to represent his district in the annual fight-to-the-death reality show, he was almost a damsel in distress, while Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) saved him from death.

In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, he comes into his own, as the less impulsive one of the two victors, trying to protect himself, Katniss and their families from the cruelty of the Capitol and President Snow (Donald Sutherland). In real life, US actor Josh Hutcherson, 21, who portrays Peeta, is confident and smart. He tells M how his life has changed since the first movie...

HAVE YOU RECEIVED A LOT MORE FAN ATTENTION SINCE THE FIRST MOVIE, AND HOW HAS THAT BEEN LIKE?

I think the fans can be a little intense sometimes, but they're so passionate about these characters and this book and we just feel lucky they come out to support the movie in every way possible, from the fan pages they make, to the posters, to the tickets - they watch it multiple times.

Their support is very much appreciated. It can get a little crazy sometimes because, being a teenager... there's a lot of hormones going on.

WHAT'S THE CRAZIEST THING THEY'VE DONE?

Spontaneous crying, when there's a happy thing, and there's nothing to cry about.

HOW HAS THE HUNGER GAMES, WHICH SHOT YOU TO STARDOM AFTER ALMOST A DECADE AS A WORKING ACTOR IN HOLLYWOOD, CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

Everything that has a bad (side) also has a good (one). For me, I've got more opportunities with my career and I now have the chance to work with so many amazing people and to do projects that I'm more passionate about which is fantastic.

The other side is the sacrifice, losing the anonymity of just walking around, going to the mall or going out to dinner with your family, you have people approaching you.

Even if they don't approach you, you walk into a room and you see people and they do this (pretends to whisper) and everyone turns and looks and all of a sudden they know where you're from, they know what movie you're in, your family, they know everything about you and you don't know anything about them. It's a very weird thing. It's hard (drops his head).

TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW PROJECT PARADISE LOST, WHICH YOU SHOT IN MEXICO WITH ACTOR BENICIO DEL TORO.

It's about a young guy who goes to Colombia and falls in love with a girl, and the girl ends up being the niece of (drug lord) Pablo Escobar. I kind of become part of the Escobar family and he does some twisted, crazy stuff.

It's based on Escobar, but it's a fiction-fact combination. It's been awesome. I got to executive-produce on it, so I was really involved in developing it. It was really cool.


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