He’s the most seductive man in the Capitol — a perfect specimen with a chiseled body, “camera-ready face” and “incredible” green eyes. When we first meet Finnick Odair in Friday’s “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” he’s shirtless and offering Katniss Everdeen sugar cubes while making double entendres.
“If we see something sweet,” he says, “we better grab it.”
Easy, kids. Don’t make us call in chaperones.
It’s no wonder that, for the book’s largely female fan base, Finnick is the character they’ve most hotly anticipated seeing onscreen.
Playing him fell to British actor Sam Claflin, who is perhaps best known for his role as a missionary in 2011’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”
“In the book, Finnick is every woman’s dream man, and that was hugely intimidating, and a lot of pressure on my shoulders to please the fans,” Claflin says.
Nailing Finnick’s confident charm was reasonably easy, and required one key ingredient: alcohol.
“Early on, we had a party where we all had a bit of dinner and some drinks, then went out on the town and had a few more drinks,” says Claflin, 27. “[Director Francis Lawrence] came up to me the next day and said, ‘I want you to be exactly like you were last night. Just be you with a few drinks. Let yourself loose, relax, chill.’ ”
But there’s more to Finnick than his flirting and fighting, as readers of the books know. He’s got a deeper story line down the road.
“Catching Fire” picks up shortly after the events of the first movie. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) are on a victory tour. As Katniss becomes a symbol for the brewing rebellion, evil President Snow (Donald Sutherland) attempts to do away with her by creating a special, all-star Hunger Games populated only by former victors. Thrown back in the arena, Katniss and Peeta team up with Finnick to stay alive.
“We saw a lot of people for the role,” Lawrence says. “We saw Sam early on, and I kept going back to him. He’s charming, handsome, athletic and funny, but it was his emotional depth that hooked me. I was looking further into what his character becomes [in the final two films].”
For his audition, Claflin was asked to perform a quiet scene in which he apologizes to Katniss.
“The side I was more interested in was the sensitive and insecure part of Finnick,” Claflin says. “Beneath that confident exterior is a broken man. I thought that was the real challenge.”
Not that the physical aspect of the character wasn’t also important. Like much of the cast, Claflin worked out hard to prepare for the role, hitting the gym and eating a strict diet including omelettes and protein shakes.
Still, “I allowed myself a few luxuries. Christmas lunch was the first one,” he says. “I had my mom’s home-cooked turkey and quickly fell asleep afterwards.”
Claflin is not so far removed from living under his mum’s roof. He grew up in Suffolk with three brothers and was most interested in soccer. At age 16, he got his big break in show business — literally. He snapped his ankle and had time to focus on something besides sports.
He chose drama, appearing in a school play.
“I played a priest in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ ” he says. “I think I was Priest #3 on the left, the all-important role. I was not at all a good singer.”
He later went on to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He landed roles on British TV and appeared in last year’s “Snow White and the Huntsman” — but “Catching Fire” is likely to boost his worldwide profile considerably.
The cast and crew are already five weeks into filming the next two films in the series; production will wind up in June with “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1,” scheduled to appear next year, and “Part 2” in 2015, concluding the series.
Does Finnick survive until the end? Readers know that few characters in “The Hunger Games” are long for the world, but Claflin’s future is probably a bit brighter.
“I have no secret [to success],” he says. “That’s probably what it is.”
Paying tribute to the latest tributes: These two ladies are particularly killer
Meta Golding: Enobaria, District 2
The first thing you notice about the fierce Enobaria is her teeth, which she filed to use as murder weapons during the games.
“You know when you wear a beautiful dress and it changes the way you walk? It was sort of the same thing. When I put the [prosthetic] teeth in, it shifted my demeanor,” Golding says. “We wanted to have her be beautiful and then switch it to ferocity only when she needed. The prosthetics kind of changed the way that my face looked, and they were really sharp.”
Stephanie Schlund: Cashmere, District 1
Former “The Price is Right” model Schlund plays Cashmere, one half of the brother-sister team from District 1. Her weapon of choice? A dagger. “We trained for a long time, so I’m now a qualified dagger thrower,” she says. “I haven’t tried throwing one at anyone, though,” she laughs. “I don’t feel like being arrested.” And she has nothing but kind words about Lawrence. “She carried around a giant bag of candy all day . . . It had everything in there from Skittles to Reese’s!”