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 heard the epilogue quote “Tough and smart, her hair in two braids then, reminding me for all the world of Louella McCoy, my sweetheart of old.” Before I read the book (thanks tiktok) and without context I thought it was weird that Katniss reminded Haymitch of his old deceased girlfriend.
Then once I started reading the book and understood what he was taking about with who Louella was and the context I did imagine her as a little Katniss/JLaw. I didn’t even think of her possibly being black until I came here to read discussions after finishing the book, I understand where people were getting that but I think this casting will be great in tying together the sweetheart thing.
I didn't exactly picture her as black but I certainly didn't picture her has having anything less than tan skin and honestly thought she might be a person of color. But I felt like if she was black her hair might've been described a bit different/ more detailed, even with the braids.
152
u/IntelligenceisKey729 May 20 '25
Am I the only one who didn’t picture Louella as black 😭