Exclusive: 'The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson interview - video

Josh Hutcherson is already a familiar face thanks to roles in The Kids Are All Right and the two Journey movies.

However, the 19-year-old Kentuckian bagged his dream part last year when he was cast as Peeta Mellark in the big screen adaptation of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins's best-selling novel about a televised tournament in which children from a post-apocalyptic America's 12 districts must fight to the death.


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Speaking to Digital Spy, Hutcherson admitted that he was "so nervous" when auditioning for the role of Peeta, a baker's son who falls for Jennifer Lawrence's heroine Katniss Everdeen.

"I don't know how I would've reacted if I didn't get the part," he said. "I'd never really read a character that I felt like I connected with more. If I can't play a character that I'm so much like, I can't play any character. When I got the part I was rendered full-blown speechless!"

Of his Oscar-nominated co-star Lawrence, Hutcherson said: "She's an incredible actress, I loved her in Winter's Bone and everything I've seen her in. For me she was the perfect casting and I couldn't imagine anybody else playing Katniss."

The actor confessed that plans are already afoot to film sequel Catching Fire this autumn.

The Hunger Games opens in cinemas on March 23.

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