'The Hunger Games': Mackenzie Lansing Has One Word to Describe Experience of Playing a Villain (Exclusive)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is out in theatres now and has been the top movie in America for the last two weeks. Mackenzie Lansing, who is known for starring in shows like The Deuce and Mare of Easttwown, stars in The Hunger Games prequel as Coral, a tribute from District 4 who leads the Pack and tries to kill Lucy Gray (Rachel Zegler). PopCulture.com spoke to Lansing who had one word to describe her experience playing a Hunger Games villain. 

"It was interesting," Lansing told PopCulture. "I expected to get more hate at the outside of the movie, but people love their villains and people love the Hunger Games and especially the tributes. So I was actually pleasantly surprised with the character's reception, but it is a lot of fun. It's always great to embrace those darker characters and figure out how they work and how to justify them."

The current Hunger Games movie takes place 64 years before the first Hunger Games movie which was released in 2012. The prequel is the fifth movie of the franchise and has already made over $200 million at the box office worldwide. Lansing knows a role like this is big for her career, but she didn't know she was auditioning for a Hunger Games film at first. 

"There was a code name for the project and I went through, I can't remember exactly when I figured it out, but I think it was right before I was going to get on Zoom with Francis Lawrence and the whole team," Lansing explained. "And my manager mentioned something about The Hunger Games and I was like, 'What Hunger Games?' And he was like, 'This, which you're auditioning for.' I was like, 'Oh, right, okay.' I put the fear of God in me, but I did somehow pull it out."

Coral may not like Lucy Gray, but Lansing enjoyed working with Zegler throughout filming. "It was awesome," Lansing said about her time with Zegler. "No matter how much we hate each other in the movie, in real life we absolutely love each other. And it was such a joy working with her. It was fun to go from me chasing her all around the arena, trying to murder her, to just chatting on set. She's a lovely human being. She's wonderful."