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<\/p>\nJosh Hutcherson was trying get the hell out of Los Angeles. For the better part of a decade, the \u201cHunger Games\u201d star and his girlfriend, Spanish actor Claudia Traisac, had split their time between L.A. and Madrid, but the eight-hour time difference between the cities had grown wearying. So Hutcherson leased an apartment in Brooklyn, and in April of this year, the couple flew\u00a0into New York City\u00a0from Spain, eager to launch their new East Coast life \u2014 until, in the car from JFK, Hutcherson got a call from his agent.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018How do you feel about going back to the airport right now?\u2019\u201d Hutcherson recalls his agent asking. \u201cI was like, \u2018I don\u2019t fucking feel good about it, not at all! Why?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/p>\n
The agent explained that Rachel Sennott, the buzzy star of indie hits \u201cBottoms\u201d and \u201cShiva Baby,\u201d was launching her first comedy series with HBO, and she wanted Hutcherson to play her character\u2019s boyfriend. But it was going to start shooting in roughly two weeks, and the show\u2019s eventual title doubled as its location: \u201cI Love L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the phone call that Hutcherson had spent years waiting to get. He\u2019d been acting since he was 9; he\u2019d landed his first starring role at 13, in \u201cZathura: A Space Adventure\u201d; he had a key supporting role in 2010 best picture nominee \u201cThe Kids Are All Right\u201d at 16; and when he was 18, he was catapulted into global superstardom when he was cast as Peeta Mellark in \u201cThe Hunger Games.\u201d But as Hutcherson drifted toward 30, the roles started to dry up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went through a few years where it was kind of slim pickings, and I wasn\u2019t doing much,\u201d he says quietly, swirling his coffee cup outside a bistro in L.A.\u2019s Echo Park neighborhood. \u201cA lot of young actors don\u2019t make the transition, or the industry kicks them out. I was kind of like, is this the time where I\u2019m over it and done?\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, at 33, Hutcherson is entering a new career peak. On Dec. 5, he\u2019ll star in Blumhouse\u2019s \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2,\u201d adapted from the feverishly popular video game franchise \u2014 the first \u201cFreddy\u2019s\u201d movie was an unexpected hit in 2023, grossing $292 million worldwide. And after scrambling to get out of his NYC lease, he did indeed join the cast of \u201cI Love L.A.,\u201d an experience that \u201creignited such a love and appreciation for this job in me,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do an HBO comedy on Sunday night. That, to me, is a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
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On \u201cI Love L.A.\u201d \u2014 which premiered on Nov. 2, runs through Dec. 21 and was just renewed for a second season<\/a> \u2014 Hutcherson plays Dylan, a schoolteacher who loves his live-in girlfriend Maia (Sennott), despite the chaos that her ambition to become a talent manager brings into his life.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up watching him in \u2018Bridge to Terabithia\u2019 and \u2018The Hunger Games,\u2019 and there\u2019s something about him, how warm and lovely he is,\u201d Sennott told Variety in October<\/a>. \u201cI was so impressed by his comedic and improv chops. But also, for audiences, I think you see him and you feel like he\u2019s your boyfriend a little.\u201d<\/p>\n Hutcherson smiles when I tell him Sennott\u2019s reasoning for casting him. \u201cI am known as the good-hearted golden boy, which I\u2019m not mad about,\u201d he says. He has tried to break free of that perception, most recently by playing the toxic tech bro villain in the 2024 Jason Statham action film \u201cThe Beekeeper.\u201d But with \u201cI Love L.A.,\u201d Hutcherson says he was \u201chappy to lean into\u201d his Good Guy persona. \u201cIf it got me on set and shooting this with Rachel \u2014 it\u2019s meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of the appeal were the days during the eight-week shoot when Hutcherson literally walked to work. \u201cThe first script mentioned Erewhon and Tenants of the Trees and the reservoir,\u201d he says, ticking off landmarks of L.A.\u2019s Eastside. \u201cThat\u2019s my circuit. That\u2019s where I\u2019ve been haunting for years.\u201d<\/p>\n He also felt at home as the only character on the show who isn\u2019t obsessed with breaking into show business. \u201cEven though I\u2019ve been doing this since I was 9, and I\u2019m so wildly in this industry, I don\u2019t feel like I am in so many ways,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t go to events unless I need to be there. I\u2019m not active on social media unless the studio is like, we need you to be. I\u2019ve always been one foot in, one foot out. When I started, I didn\u2019t have a hunger for becoming famous; I just wanted to make movies and TV shows. I feel like that aligns with Dylan. He just wants to exist and do something he cares about.\u201d<\/p>\n The chance to play an everyday adult living in the world as it exists in 2025 is rare for any actor right now, and Hutcherson does not take it for granted. \u201cI\u2019ve grown up working with tennis balls and green screens,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t have to try to convince the audience that we\u2019re, like, X amount of years in the future in a dystopic society or that these animatronics are possessed by ghost children.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s referring, of course, to the \u201cFreddy\u2019s\u201d movies, which revolve around a creepy, long-shuttered pizzeria joint \u00e0 la Chuck E. Cheese and its homicidal robot animal mascots that are embodied by the spirits of murdered kids. The elaborate animatronic costumes created by Jim Henson\u2019s Creature Shop can be worn by the performers only for 30 minutes at a time before the weight and heat become overwhelming. And when they do have the costumes on, there\u2019s no guarantee they\u2019re going to work right.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stunt actor has to turn and look to the right, but then three people with remote controls have to make the eyes time with the blink,\u201d Hutcherson says. \u201cYou\u2019ll do 10 takes, because the animatronic movement isn\u2019t quite working. That one take that the animatronic is perfect, you better be perfect too, because that\u2019s the one that\u2019s going in the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n The sequel, Hutcherson estimates, has \u201cmore than double\u201d the creatures from the first film, one of which, the character called Mangle<\/a>, requires \u201ca team of 10 or 12 people to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the animatronics might find a way to leave the pizzeria,\u201d he adds, \u201cwhich is a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n But wait, I say, didn\u2019t the titular Freddy exit the pizzeria in the first movie?<\/p>\n \u201cYes, but there\u2019s, like, certain rules of the game that \u2014\u201d he says, his voice slowing down and raising in pitch with each successive word. \u201cIt\u2019s murky. And I don\u2019t fully get it, but I know it\u2019s a big deal that the animatronics that leave, leave. It\u2019s a whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n When Hutcherson signed on to the first \u201cFreddy\u2019s,\u201d he didn\u2019t really grasp the size of the \u201cabsolutely rabid fan base\u201d for the mid-2010s video games that inspired the films \u201cuntil after the movie came out.\u201d But as he talks about shooting the sequel \u2014 directed once again by Emma Tammi, and written by the game\u2019s creator, Scott Cawthon\u00a0\u2014 I get the feeling that Hutcherson is still simply along for the ride.<\/p>\n \u201cThe main focus is making something that the FNAF fandom will go crazy for,\u201d he says, pronouncing the acronym as the fans do: \u201cfuh-naff.\u201d \u201cSometimes I\u2019m like, \u2018This doesn\u2019t make any sense! How can I possibly do this?\u2019 And they\u2019re like, \u2018It\u2019s from the game.\u2019\u201d He starts laughing as he puts up his hands in surrender. \u201c\u2018All right, all right, all right, I\u2019m on board, I\u2019m on board.\u2019 But it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Satisfying the exacting expectations of a vocal fanbase is certainly familiar territory for Hutcherson, after spending half a decade with Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth inside the \u201cHunger Games\u201d maelstrom. As his time with that franchise was coming to an end with 2015\u2019s \u201cThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay \u2013 Part 2,\u201d Hutcherson says he went through a phase where he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. \u201cI was like, \u2018Fuck that,\u2019\u201d he says matter-of-factly. \u201cI got thrust into a place of notoriety that I never dreamed of, never wanted. It took privacy from me.\u201d<\/p>\n To this day, Hutcherson avoids crowded public places, including in Madrid, and strangers yelling \u201cPeeta\u201d at him is a daily occurrence. But he\u2019s grown to appreciate everything that \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d has provided him, so much so that his face lights up when I bring up the prospect of making another film with the core team, including director Francis Lawrence and co-star Woody Harrelson. \u201cI would love to be back on set with Francis, with Jen, with Liam, with Woody,\u201d he says. \u201cIt would not take any convincing at all. I\u2019d be there in a heartbeat.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a chance that could happen sooner than one may expect. Francis Lawrence is in production on an adaptation of Suzanne Collins\u2019 prequel novel<\/a> \u201cSunrise on the Reaping,\u201d which chronicles the Hunger Games experience from the perspective of Harrelson\u2019s character Haymitch Abernathy when he was 16\u00a0\u2014 and ends with an epilogue set after the events of \u201cMockingjay,\u201d featuring Haymitch, Peeta and series heroine Katniss Everdeen.<\/p>\n Hutcherson learned of that coda only as the book hit shelves in March. So, I ask, is he in the new movie?<\/p>\n He breaks into a massive grin. \u201cThat would be a dream come true,\u201d he says, holding my gaze.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not quite sure what you\u2019re trying to communicate to me, I say.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be a dream come true,\u201d he repeats. \u201cDo dreams come true? Sometimes. Sometimes not. Sometimes, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n Selome Hailu contributed to this story.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Hutcherson was trying get the hell out of Los Angeles. For the better part of a decade,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,133758,135150,121765,47312],"class_list":{"0":"post-301041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hunger-games","13":"tag-hutcherson","14":"tag-josh-hutcherson","15":"tag-rachel-sennott"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/a233368b24967769a18f00765aca7925.jpeg\"\/)
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