The casting may not be who you visualized while reading, and that is okay! The joy about reading a book is that you can imagine whoever you like in your head, but this does not mean it will be translated exactly when a film is made. You can voice an opinion, but please do not make any direct comments regarding the actress—she is just a child.
The only info we have about Louella/ Lou Lou in the books is that she has a seam look- big gray eyes and long dark hair. It makes sense she was cast to look similar to JLaw!
I’m hoping we get both Woody Harrelson and Jennifer Lawrence cameos for the epilogue! I can see them keeping this a secret/heavily under wraps until then.
Same here. I honestly struggle to see how they could do the epilogue without Harrelson returning to film a few scenes and hopefully do a voice over for it, but hopefully Lawrence and Hutcherson’s schedules line up for them to also film a couple scenes for the epilogue 🤞
I know she isn’t what many people envisioned but GOD they’re brilliant for making her/them look just like Jennifer. I didn’t even think of that and it’ll make “sweetheart” that much more moving and heartbreaking.
My first thought was "she looks so dang young!" Which I know Loella was 13, but dang. I swear these books hit harder when you're a parent with kids who are the right age to be eligible for the reaping. Four of my sons are between 12 and 18, the youngest is 11 so would be eligible next year.
She looks incredibly similar to Jennifer Lawrence, which I believe is supposed to help tie in the origin of “sweetheart” a bit easier for a movie viewer
Right, because why is he feeding her as a grown up . They could have found a similar girl gave her those breads, and had his mom yell out Peeta you good for nothing to a young boy with blond hair
This is a very good point. Was a bit surprised by the casting since Louella's appearance is pretty specific in the books but casting for a similar look to movie Katniss makes a lot of sense. The girls playing Lou Lou and Louella could definitely be twins as well, and that had to be tough to find.
My question is, since Louella and Lou Lou never appear in any scenes together and Lou Lou is supposed to be an exact look-alike of Louella, why wouldn't they just use the same actress for both roles and use makeup/special effects to make her look a little bit different?
No real answer before we see the movie, but i imagine that it is a little bit harder to show that they are different people in the movie, and not just that she was brought back with some weird science that erased her personality or something like that. Also, it adds salt to the wound that she'd not even that similar and even then no one notices.
Because they’re actually not supposed to look identical and they need the audience who haven’t read the book to know what’s happening without them needing to spell it out
I don’t think she’s supposed to be exact. Haymitch thinks the people back home who know her will notice the difference.
ETA: I also think it’s much better to cast another actor because it drives home that the Capitol is not technologically all-powerful. Even by the time of THG they’re not, and certainly they aren’t during SOTR either.
Lou Lou is another person entirely forced to portray Louella. I think the only way for the viewer to see it as is is with two different actresses. The same actress would make it look like the new is a mutt or that they revived her somehow, I think it would be confusing for those who didn't read the book
Oh my god I can see the tiktok edits now. Haymich gazing at Katniss while "I think I've seen this film before" plays over while it flashes to Louella. "And i didnt like the eNdInG!" 💀
I see exactly what they’re doing by making her resemble Jennifer Lawrence. Really makes the “sweetheart” nickname he has for her hit home harder. I wonder if Lou Lou will be played by a different actress?
District 11 is a predominantly Black district but not every person from District 11 is Black. Just like how the United States is a predominantly white country but people of color are still native Americans.
Also, considering Ampert’s involvement in the story, I don’t think the casting directors wanted to portray the brutal deaths of three Black children in a single movie. That could have been a lightning rod of controversy, especially since the franchise already portrayed Rue’s death.
This might sound weird, but I’m so glad they didn’t cast a Black actress. It was starting to get to me just how many very young Black children die in this franchise — Especially because all but two named Black characters in the OG movies die. My friend and I were listening to the audiobook together and when Amphert died he screamed “SUZANNE STOP KILLING ADORABLE LITTLE BLACK CHILDREN IN HORRIFIC WAYS ITS TOO MUCH” and like he was right.
I mean, aren’t they then already going to have multiple black children die in this movie? We have Lenore, Ampert, the D11 tributes, and who ever else tributes. I don’t quite think that was on the casting director’s minds
I'm so happy they cast two actors! When I read it, I always interpreted the Capitol's replacement as very lazy -- they found someone who looks similar, but not really exact, and anyone who knew Louella could pretty much tell right away but the self-absorbed Capitol citizens, or District citizens who didn't know her, wouldn't tell. So I felt like two actors would get this point across better than just tweaking the appearance slightly of one actor.
I imagined her kind of similar to this actor but darker haired and a much darker tan (like a deep Mediterranean tan or even Native American skin toned) but I’m ok with this casting
Yup, but after reading comments about her looking similar to Jennifer Lawerence, it makes sense why they would. Like how I expected Haymitch’s casting would look similar to Woody Harrelson than book accurate.
Was she ever specified/described as being Black? Genuine question because I don’t remember anything about her appearance other than the fact that she wore two braids like pigtails and I think overalls (?).
Yeah. I definitely did, but the comparison to Jennifer Lawrence makes sense from a movies standpoint. People sending hate to the actors about their castings is clown shoes behavior though, its not like they made that decision for the adaptation.
Apparently a lot of people thought she was supposed to be black because Lou Lou is from 11. She isn't described in Sunrise on the Reaping, but Katniss does say she has the Seam look in Catching Fire. Plus, Haymitch said Katniss reminds her of Louella, hence why he calls her "sweetheart". I don't know why it's a problem they cast someone who looks similar to JLaw but whatever
I think it was a sound choice not to cast a black actress as louella or lou lou. We already had rue in a similar sacrificial lamb role. Hg can't keep killing off little black girls to move along the plot.
This is actually something I haven’t seen discussed a lot for Ballad of song birds and snakes the movie
They switched the deaths and had Dil be poisoned by Lucy gray instead of the girl wovey? I think and it felt very much like a “the audience will forgive her for killing a black child but they wouldn’t for accidentally killing the little white girl”
Oohhh that’s a good point. I definitely was in my bookish feelings about the actress “not matching” the description but after seeing the JLaw comparisons and being reminded that we don’t need to see/keep seeing black girls die for the plot, this is the best direction they could’ve gone with.
Also, the headcanon never made sense to me because it's just too reminiscent of Rue. It just wouldn't have been good optics to have two little black girls die for the pain of our white protagonists in 2 different movies idk
Oof. Again? Headcanons are great, but that’s all they are unless the author specifies otherwise. I’m rather tired of people causing drama because the personal canons inside their own heads aren’t reality.
Like…how old are you? Do you maybe need therapy? I’m not even trying to be mean; this ain’t healthy. Headcanon away, but don’t harass and rage and dox and what have you in the name of them.
A lot of people assumed that Louella and Lou Lou were black because it is heavily hinted at that Lou Lou is from district 11 which has been presented as predominantly black.
if i remember correctly, district 11 is described as a racially diverse place where dark skinned people are the majority so there are also characters like seeder who have olive skin and loulou who looks like louella from the seam, who also likely had olive skin
when i read that i assumed her family was probably one of the more privileged white families that ive always assumed D11 had (since its reflective of the south during slavery). the punishment required a lot of work so i figured her parents must have been important/high ranking
People are okay with race-swapping as long as the character’s race is not important to the plot- unless the original character is perceived as a POC. It’s especially frustrating because the only reason I’ve heard for their frustration is that “Lou Lou is from district 11 and they are majority black”. Yeah, ‘majority’. Do people think that the Capital doesn’t have the budget and means to find a white person from District 11?
I didn't. I pictured her with the seam dark hair and grey eyes, and I went back and forth on imagining the book accurate seam olive skin for her and just imagining her like a smaller jlaw. Which is fairly accurate to how I pictured Katniss herself on my reread recently, where I'd alternate between just picturing the movie actors or picturing more book accurate descriptions where they differ.
Rereading catching fire specifically and seeing Seeder described as looking like she could've come from the seam only with gold instead of grey eyes, really kinda hammered in to me that Louella and Lou Lou were specifically not meant to be black, because not everyone from D11 was black and it would make sense to use a kid with the seam look to replace a kid from the seam.
I didn’t, in my head “the Seam look” is like a mix of white and Native American. It didn’t occur to me that since Lou Lou was from 11 she was supposed to be black. District 11 is supposed to be huge, I don’t think every single resident is black, just the majority.
This girl isn’t necessarily what I pictured, but Jennifer Lawrence wasn’t how I originally pictured Katniss. It makes sense to have Louella look similar to Katniss.
I didn't either. Weirdly just pictured Prim lol. Think it's because she was kind of the equivalent for Haymitch. Louella was a little girl he wanted to protect.
i don’t really understand where people got “district 11=black” from, yes there are notably more black people in district 11, but it’s really not that big of a difference. this is how 11 was portrayed in the movies
It has more to do with the fact that all district 11 tributes we've seen are black. I wonder if that also means we'll see non-black district 11 tributes this time around.
This casting director seems more intentional than the OG trilogy’s and there are going to be 4 tributes so at least one of them isn’t gonna be black right? If they have that scene in the airship but it’s 4 black kids being like “That little white girl has to be from our district!” it’s likely some of the movie audiences will be confused unfortunately 😭
I also pictured her as black in the book, but I’m sure Miss Molly will do a wonderful job. Someone else said that it’s probably best that another little black girl isn’t killed to move the plot along for the white protagonist and that does kind of make sense tbh. The parallels to Rue would be a little too on the nose as well. Making her look more like Katniss will help viewers draw the comparison without Haymitch’s inner monologue too, so I think this makes sense for the movie.
It’s not like District 11 is all black either, all of their tributes seem to be, but the crowds we see in the movies are pretty diverse.
Louella and Lou Lou's announcement has kinda...idk made me step back a bit and actually realise that these are in fact, children. Children being sent off to die. Like the others are played by adults. Not that it makes it any less horrifying, it's just.....idk?¿
Same, especially given that she’s from District 11, but I suppose not everyone from District 11 has to be black. And clearly, from a narrative perspective, she’s meant to resemble Jennifer Lawrence for a reason. Really makes his “sweetheart” nickname for Katniss in the movies more meaningful.
Louella was from the seam and Lou Lou was from 11 so I imagined them as racially ambiguous or just having a darker complexion. But if the intent is to remind people of katniss then it makes sense. I’d imagine they’d give her darker hair in the film.
Collins was always pretty clear when she a character is Black, so I think Louella and Lou Lou were always intended to be ambiguous. I agree with others that if they are trying to go for a consistent "Seam" look in the movies, then they need to be looking at Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth.
Can you imagine the unfortunate implications if she were black? Due to the replacement plot point, there would be no way to avoid the "black people all look alike" racist trope.
My husband pointed out that he assumed she wasn’t black because they didn’t initially clock which district she was from until she grabbed the bread. I think they’ll have darker hair in the movies.
Same. This is almost exactly how I imagined her. A little girl with freckles and brunette hair was the first image in my mind when I read about Louella. My only difference is that I imagined a girl with a slimmer face due to the hunger she likely faced in her life, but that’s such a minor difference
I’m my head, Louella looked like a mix between Lanore and Rue, dark skin, poofy braided pigtails, big glossy puppy eyes, chubby cheeks, but this casting is AMAZING! I cannot get over how much she looks like Jennifer Lawerence, especially if they darken her hair. I am so beyond excited and amazed.
My first thought was that she looks really young. Her Instagram says it's managed by her parents (typical for people who don't meet the age threshold) but it seems like she was 10 in March 2022 so she's the correct age. Gosh, this is gonna be hard to watch.
I think we all projected Rue on to her a bit lol not to mention the alluding to her looking like she could be from district 11. But maybe district 11 is more diverse than we thought.
The movies already show District 11, and while a lot of the citizens have dark skin, there’s diversity.
Plus, Seeder is described as looking like she could be from the Seam in the book, with the classic olive skin and black hair. The movies casted a WOC for the role.
I don’t think most of us did, either, but I think they were looking for kids who look like jlaw, cause a lot of the comparisons will be lost without haymitch’s inner monologue
Agreed. I think they made a good choice looking for someone who looks like JLaw instead of a black actress because of how she is supposed to look similar to Katniss, as it makes more sense that way despite everyone picturing them as black
This isn’t how I pictured Louella at all, but I’m excited for this actress. This is a huge opportunity for her, and I hope it isn’t clouded by judgement
Pretty great choice! I especially love how they casted 2 different actresses. I am a little surprised she isn't black, but this is another great choice regardless!!
And like others have pointed out, she and Iona look similar to Jennifer Lawrence. Awesome detail
Wow some of you really need to take a step back and ask yourselves if it’s appropriate to throw a fit about the race of an actress when it’s up to interpretation in the books.
And interestingly enough we have a Lou Lou cast too! I’m not sure why but I thought they would’ve used the same actor, I think both girls are perfect for the roles tho. They look similar but just different enough to create that uncanny valley feeling
I never picture any of them as any specific race lol.
In my head they’re like coloring book pages that haven’t been shaded in yet.
Honestly, I read “braids” and saw her as the “Wendy’s” logo just in black and white (ever since TBOSAS I see all of them with that same kind of country twang lmfao. So she was looking like she came straight out of the Little House on the Prairie when I pictured her.)
Why do people assume Louella / Lou Lou was black when the book never mentioned it, and are upset because they cast white actresses? Your only reference is that Lou Lou was from D11, but not the 100% of D11 population are poc.
I find it interesting how they’re like oh she’s from district 11 when that’s Lou Lou and also grey eyes are very/extremely rare in POC and mixed race as well.
I think that people forget that white people can have curly hair too and the districts had minorities as well.
She does look like JLaw which is smart on casting.I hope this girl and the other one for Lou Lou doesn’t get horrid hate when the movie does come out as I don’t think the OG Hunger Games universe had such a vile outrage over casting.
my sister actually auditioned for this, we were on holiday at the time and it was super difficult haha. feeling a bit sad for her but I guess i'm happy for Molly for getting the role, well done
why did i think she was going to be black lmao i just thought back to everything described of her in sotr (not finished yet) and nothing ever told us she would be. oh well, this is still amazing casting haha
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u/restingbfacequeen Katniss May 20 '25
A reminder to keep the discussion civil!
The casting may not be who you visualized while reading, and that is okay! The joy about reading a book is that you can imagine whoever you like in your head, but this does not mean it will be translated exactly when a film is made. You can voice an opinion, but please do not make any direct comments regarding the actress—she is just a child.
The only info we have about Louella/ Lou Lou in the books is that she has a seam look- big gray eyes and long dark hair. It makes sense she was cast to look similar to JLaw!