Movieline recently interviewed Lenny Kravitz on portraying Cinna. You can read the rest of the interview here.


So, you weren't familiar with the books beforehand and only heard about them when you got the call for Cinna?
Yes, through Gary Ross – I had no idea.
Did you know Gary beforehand?
I had met Gary once at a dinner, a random dinner. He and I had a conversation about film in general, and I was completely taken by the fact that he had written Big and it was his first thing, off the cuff – ‘Oh, I’ll write this movie called Big…’ But that was it! I’d met him once at a dinner. Never saw him again, didn’t have his phone number.
How did he track you down for this phone call?
I’m in the Bahamas, recording my album, and I’m in the booth somewhere. The engineer knocks and says, ‘There’s a Gary Ross on the telephone.’ I had kind of forgotten, you know? I pick up the phone and he’s like, ‘It’s Gary! Remember, we had dinner…’ I was like, ‘Oh! Gary Ross. Cool. What’s up?’ He said, ‘I’m doing this movie called Hunger Games and there’s a character called Cinna. If you want it, you’ve got it – just tell me. You won’t have to audition.’ I’m sitting there like, what? But in the back of my head I’m thinking, who’s Cinna and what’s Hunger Games? I had no idea what it was. So I said, ‘Thank you, I’m sure I’d want to do this but – I don’t know what it is, so let me get the book.’ I was in the Bahamas in a small town, not a lot of internet around, so I’m with my iPad trying to get a signal to download this entire book… and I began to read, began to read, and at the end of Chapter One I thought, oh shit – I can’t put it down. I’ll just read another chapter. It was at night and I had been working all day so I’m tired and I figured I’ll make a chapter or two before I put it down, but I couldn’t. I was like, wow, this is a really good story! So I called him the next day and said, ‘I’ll be there.’

Your scenes in the film are mostly comprised of just you and Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, and you two share a great chemistry together. But you had already known her prior through your daughter Zoe, who was also in X-Men. What was your relationship like with her before making the movie together?
She used to come over, and I’d go to London and see them. I mean, I fell for her the day she walked in my house. This girl is family. She’s so funny, such a joy to be around. She brings sunshine to any situation. And obviously it was a plus to find out, because when I told Gary I would do the movie I asked, ‘Who’s playing Katniss?’ ‘It’s Jennifer Lawrence.’ And I was like, ‘Wow – she was just in my house cooking breakfast!’
Did Gary know about this connection when he called to offer you the part?
Did he know? No, he didn’t know. I told him and he said, ‘Really? Well, that makes it even better because there’s going to be a natural chemistry already.’ That definitely was a plus.
Did you read the whole book in a day?
At night, and then the next day. Quickly. I could not put it down. What a great opportunity! And the fact that he’d called me – he said he’d seen Precious and he thought that Nurse John and Cinna, even though they’re completely different characters, had similar characteristics as far as being nurturing and all that.
Certainly, they do. When it comes to Cinna, though, maybe given the fact that he’s a fashionista some readers of the books infer that he’s gay, even though his sexuality remains ambiguous.
Right, they assume. And that was a question: How far do we take it? If we had gone the outrageous route, it would have been just another stereotypical statement. Immediately I’m thinking science fiction, crazy costumes, this sort of possibly effeminate costumes. I started thinking Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element, because I didn’t know where Gary was going stylistically. Then when I got to the set I thought, this is really smart. The look of the Capitol and the way everybody dressed, it was real – it wasn’t this outrageous costumey stuff. There were a lot of outrageous colors and big statement, but there were a lot of old things and new things mixed, just like it is now. We’re in 2012 and we’re still wearing clothes that look like clothes. We’re not wearing silver space suits with helmets and all that… well, some of us are. [Laughs]