Panem newcomer! Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) finds yet another supporter in the final Hunger Games installment — Tigris. Eugenie Bondurant, who plays the former Capitol stylist in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, dishes about her colorful character exclusively with Us Weekly.
As payback for being shunned by her peers, Tigris helps to disguise The Girl on Fire, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) amid their ongoing battle against President Snow. Though the transformations are clever, nothing compares to Tigris’ elaborate cat-like features. Bondurant reveals to Us just how long she had to sit in the makeup chair to get her look exactly right.
“I think when we first started I sat in the chair for six and a half hours,” Bondurant, 54, tells Us of her on-screen makeover. “I had tattoos all the way down my arms and on my back and on my chest. I had wardrobe on and so it was both — tattoos and makeup on my body.” She adds: “It’s beautiful, the result is stunning.”
The Patsy actress — who admits that she usually doesn’t fit the “girl next door” type — was elated when she booked the Suzanne Collins-created character. Though only introduced in book three, Bondurant says that the cast and crew were extremely welcoming on set, which was a “well-oiled machine.” In fact, its leading lady blew her away with kindness.
“Words cannot express what a talented actress that woman is. So, that’s one thing,” Bondurant, who is “Team Katniss,” says of Lawrence. “And the second thing is, she’s incredibly gracious and fun and she makes a point to introduce herself to everyone.”
Director Francis Lawrence was also a thrill to work with. “If I ever get the opportunity to work with him again I will be jumping for joy,” she adds. “[He’s] not only incredibly talented and a visionary, but he brings such a calm and a sense of playfulness to a set.”
Playful, indeed. The director often goofed off with Lawrence, 25, Hemsworth, 25, and Hutcherson, 23, between takes. “They play this game on the set where they put their fingers in the shape of a square and if you look at it, then the person who looks at it gets punched,” Bondurant explains, laughing. “It’s hysterical. They [did] it the whole time.”
As Bondurant reveals, there really was a “camaraderie” with the actors — and their late friend Philip Seymour Hoffman continued to be remembered while filming. (The Oscar winner, who played Plutarch Heavensbee, died of a drug overdose at the age of 46 at his Manhattan apartment in February 2014. At the time, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 was still in production.)
“You did feel that there was…the undercurrent of this tragedy. [Losing] one of their own,” Bondurant explains to Us. “His name is actually still up on the wall and in the makeup trailer — they have all of the photos on the wall. His photo was up in the wardrobe trailer.”
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 hits theaters on Friday, Nov. 20.
For more behind-the-scenes details, cast interviews, and movie stills from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, pick up Us Weekly’s latest collector’s edition bookazine.
