'Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Stars Sam Claflin And Jena Malone Talk Finnick, Johanna And More! [INTERVIEW]

As with any book to film adaptation there are die hard fans who take the decision of picking an actor for any character seriously, and that is no different; if not more apparent for "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." Finnick Odair and Johanna Mason are two integral characters in the sequel, which made their casting a widely debated decision among fans and critics of the Suzanne Collins series. Probably as much so as the anticipated casting of Gale and Peeta's the first time around.

When actors Jena Malone, who plays the bristly Johanna Mason, and Sam Claflin, who portrays womanizing Finnick Odair were chosen the two had very different reactions from fans. Claflin unfortunately received backlash via Twitter from fans who disagreed with his casting and Malone though heard of the backlash didn't suffer the same fate. Now Jena Malone and Sam Claflin talk with Latin Times to discuss roles, training, rumors and on set pranks! The two dish about the upcoming film and what fans should expect from the highly-anticipated sequel, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."

We all know star Jennifer Lawrence read the books prior to filming "The Hunger Games" and we're sure it's on everyone else mind if other actors did the same. "Yep read all three of them, loved them, ate them up," said Malone. "It's funny my little sister told me to read them 4 years prior and i was hesitant, then the audition came up and I was like 'oh yea have to read them!' Then I was crying at the end it totally got to me." As for Claflin Wikipedia was his guide for the character of Finnick.

"I didn't have time to read all three books but I did do as much research as I could on Wikipedia. After my two auditions in two days I had five days before my 3rd audition and read all 3 books then," said Clafliln. "It was an intense reading experience, but I loved them and I think Suzanne Collins is a genius."

But reading "The Hunger Games" series isn't enough to portray the character of the feisty Johanna and perfect Finnick. "We trained intensely. I mean obviously they wanted us to look like these lethal weapons we were. We did about three weeks of training before we started shooting, but we didn't train together," Said Malone. "Overall it was about five in a half months of training in martial arts, weapons, fight choreography and dieting, even strength conditioning."

Claflin agreed and summed up the best way to describe their training for the roles saying, "Our training process was that it was very, very similar to that of the Hunger Games! We definitely spent moments on set showing off our newly learned skills to one another. It was great fun and you have to embrace that as an actor."

Now before you go thinking it was all training and hard work Claflin and Malone share some hilarious and mischievous moments from the set of Catching Fire. "There was a lot of fun to be had. We all had such a blast. even when we were in the most treacherous of terrains with the weather against us we had smiles on our faces and had a ball," said Claflin. "We were very mischievous, irritating undoubtedly. There was one moment when we climbed the Cornucopia in Atlanta with a bag of candy and we started the throwing the candy at the set and crew members and they couldn't work out where this candy was coming. It was a lot of fun."

All fun aside when asked if there was anything fans should look forward to seeing in the highly-anticipated sequel Malone summed it up in three easy words, "EVERY SINGLE SECOND!" And Claflin wholeheartedly agreed with a laugh saying, "She summed everything up."

Claflin also added, "I think Francis Lawrence has completely taken the world gary ross created so beautifully in the first film and sort of developed that further and deeper to create a much darker world," described Claflin. "That is all to look forward too and I don't want to ruin too much but i have a feeling you [fans] won't be disappointed."