My Hunger Games Cast Countdown – Willow Shields

Hamilton | December 2, 2011 | 1 Comment More

Welcome to Cast Countdown with Hamilton. I will be regularly introducing a member of the Hunger Games cast and discussing what it is that they will be bringing to the role of their character. Fair warning, just in case you have not yet read the book, there may be spoilers here.

Willow Shields as Primrose Everdeen

About Primrose: Known as Prim, the younger Everdeen girl looks more like her mother and less like her older sister and most of the other inhabitants of The Seam, the part of District 12 in which they live. Her blonde hair, fair skin, and blue eyes make her stand out from the crowd. She is twelve years old in The Hunger Games and is facing her first year participating in the Reaping. Though she does not appear much in the first book, it could be argued that she is the single most important character to the story – being the catalyst for everything that happens when her name is unexpectedly drawn.

About Willow Shields: At eleven years old, Shields is the right age for the part and her fair skin and blonde hair match Collins‘ description, though her brown eyes do not. Shields is a relative unknown, having very little film experience. Her most recent, and only feature length, role is that of Grace, a homeless girl in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, Beyond the Blackboard. She can be seen at the :08, :16, and :24 marks of the trailer below.

At this point it is too early to tell what the young Shields will be bringing to the film – she had no speaking parts in the trailer and what few video interviews with her we’ve seen have been very brief and mostly consisted of typical canned responses about how talented the cast is and that the movie comes out on March 23. It could be a bit worrisome that we haven’t really gotten to hear her in the trailer as that can sometimes be a sign of the editors trying to hide a weaker performer. However, in this part of the story especially, Prim is such a minor character that it shouldn’t matter even if that is the case. She is more of a symbol and the embodiment of Katniss’s emotion and ideals. Emotion is the number one thing she needs to show and evoke, and if you weren’t moved by her stricken performance in the trailer, it is possible that you are not human.

Bottom line, Shields seems like a lovely young girl with great looks who fits the part almost to a T and is able expressive her emotions very effectively with no words needed. I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say that I hope she continues to grow into a strong actress and can show us what she is capable of when March 23 comes around.

Willow Shields on IMDB

Willow Shields on Facebook