--- title: Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1: How Donald Sutherland Landed Role description: He wrote a passionate letter to the director about the script, and THEN they offered him the part canonical: https://time.com/3589111/hunger-games-mockingjay-donald-sutherland/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-17T16:05:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:14:38.794Z og:title: Here's the Rather Unusual Way Donald Sutherland Landed His Role in 'The Hunger Games' og:description: He wrote a passionate letter to the director about the script, and THEN they offered him the part og:url: https://time.com/3589111/hunger-games-mockingjay-donald-sutherland/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe46c7ba133def6b/698769000b72e390a76dbf0e/458765482.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Sutherland - "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1" - World Premiere - Red Carpet Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's the Rather Unusual Way Donald Sutherland Landed His Role in 'The Hunger Games' twitter:description: He wrote a passionate letter to the director about the script, and THEN they offered him the part twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe46c7ba133def6b/698769000b72e390a76dbf0e/458765482.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's the Unusual Way Donald Sutherland Landed His Role in _The Hunger Games_ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Nov 17, 2014 4:05 PM UTC  Donald Sutherland attends the world Ppremiere of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1" at Odeon Leicester Square on November 10, 2014 in London, England. Donald Sutherland attends the world Ppremiere of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1" at Odeon Leicester Square on November 10, 2014 in London, England.Anthony Harvey—Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Nov 17, 2014 4:05 PM UTC When watching a _Hunger Games_ movie, it feels like Donald Sutherland was _born_ to play Coriolanus Snow, the menacing president of Panem. But the film’s creators didn’t initially have him in mind for the role — and the trilogy could have turned out quite differently if he hadn’t taken the initial steps to nab the part. “Nobody asked me to do it. I wasn’t offered it,” he says in [a recent interview ](http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201411/donald-sutherland-hunger-games)with _GQ_. “I like to read scripts, and it captured my passion.” So he decided to write a letter, which eventually made its way to director Gary Ross. After reading the script, Sutherland decided this was “an incredibly important film,” and he wanted to be part of it. “I thought it could wake up an electorate that had been dormant since the ’70s,” he said. Sutherland admitted that he was inspired even though he had never read the books. In fact, he didn’t know they existed at all. Still, his passion was palpable, and Ross soon offered him the role of President Snow. Boom. That should teach us all a thing or two about being aggressive and proactive and going confidently in the direction of our dreams or whatever. Read Sutherland’s full letter [over at _Business Insider_](http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-sutherland-hunger-games-email-2014-11). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3589111/hunger-games-mockingjay-donald-sutherland/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3589111/hunger-games-mockingjay-donald-sutherland/"},"headline":"Here's the Unusual Way Donald Sutherland Landed His Role in The Hunger Games","datePublished":"2014-11-17T16:05:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:14:38.794Z","description":"He wrote a passionate letter to the director about the script, and THEN they offered him the part","url":"https://time.com/3589111/hunger-games-mockingjay-donald-sutherland/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Hunger Games","Jennifer Lawrence","celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe46c7ba133def6b/698769000b72e390a76dbf0e/458765482.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe46c7ba133def6b/698769000b72e390a76dbf0e/458765482.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Sutherland - \"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1\" - World Premiere - Red Carpet Arrivals","caption":"\"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1\" - World Premiere - Red Carpet Arrivals","creditText":"Anthony Harvey—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3589111/hunger-games-mockingjay-donald-sutherland/","name":"Here's the Unusual Way Donald Sutherland Landed His Role in The Hunger Games"}}]}] ```