David Henrie has revealed that losing the role of Gale Hawthorne in The Hunger Games ultimately led him towards Catholicism.
The 37-year-old actor was one of the finalists for the part, which went to Liam Hemsworth. Speaking on The Lila Rose Show podcast, Henrie said he now viewed missing out as “the best thing in the world that I didn’t get” because of the impact it had on his life.
Henrie said the decision came down to him and Hemsworth after he auditioned alongside Jennifer Lawrence, who played Katniss Everdeen. He had known Lawrence previously and said their chemistry read went well.
“I did know she was going to be Katniss. I didn’t know she was going to be in the room for the chemistry read,” he said. “And the audition went great. It was a phenomenal audition.”
However, Henrie recalled feeling intimidated when Hemsworth entered the room. He described the Australian actor as “a foot taller than me” and said he realised the casting team had a strong alternative.
Henrie said negotiations had begun over a three-film deal worth millions of dollars, but he ultimately accepted that Hemsworth was the right choice for the role.
“It was a great casting choice because there’s a height variance,” he said, adding that he believed he looked too much like Josh Hutcherson, who played Peeta Mellark. “It was good that they cast him.”
David Henrie’s search for faith
After missing out on The Hunger Games, Henrie said he became involved in the film Little Boy. At the time, he was struggling with an “existential conundrum”, despite having achieved financial success and acquired the possessions he had been told would make him feel successful.
He said he felt dissatisfied while living for pleasure and began attending philosophy evenings on the set of Little Boy. His interests included Buddhism and comparative mythology, as he searched for answers about “the cosmos and the universe and what’s around us”.
Henrie said he initially wanted nothing to do with God, but eventually considered different religions before settling on Catholicism. He said its position on meritorious suffering “all just clicked” and that he “radically changed the way that I live”.
