One of the hardest working young actors

He share thoughts on his success

HONOLULU - Ensconced in a resort hotel room, Josh Hutcherson prefers Hawaii without the ants and critters.

“The bugs were definitely a little much,” says the 20-year-old actor of his starring role in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. “You’d see a few ants and then realize you’re standing on a nest of nine million of them.”

These are high class problems to endure for the no-long-a-child actor who has been one of the busiest young actors of the last decade. We can be sure to see this talented actor break through next month when he co-stars in the long-awaited adaptation of the young adult hit novel The Hunger Games.

Hutcherson, who was “the kid” opposite star Brendan Fraser in 2008′s Journey To The Center Of The Earth, was bumped up to lead actor opposite Dwayne Johnson in the new sort-of sequel.

“It was such a big gap between the two, it was like a different movie. And when I heard the cast I got really excited about it. It makes no sense, honestly, me being (the lead) in a movie with Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Vanessa (Vanessa Hudgens).”

A major difference between the two Journey films was that, where the first was almost entirely CGI, Canadian-born director Brad Peyton used a Hawaii location shoot, bugs and all, to approximate the mysteriously sinking island of Mysterious Island (extremely loosely based on the Jules Verne novel).

The script called for the most action of Hutcherson’s career, including hour-long shoots under water, during which Johnson (the artist formerly known as The Rock) and Hutcherson would periodically take in air from a hookah device.

Game for anything, Hutcherson has already amassed a long list of credits as “that kid from” The Kids Are Alright, Bridge To Terabithia, Cirque du Freak, Firehouse Dog and Jon (Iron Man) Favreau’s FX debut Zathura. All except Kids were box office flops, “which is why I’ve learned not to count my chickens before they’re hatched,” he says.

Still, the analysts would advise buying Hutcherson stock now, before next month’s debut of The Hunger Games. The book, which has already sold almost a million copies, has hordes of faithful young fans of the Twilight/Harry Potter variety. Set in a post-apocalypic future where young people fight to the death for society’s entertainment, Hutcherson plays the male lead, Peeta Mellark, opposite Jennifer Lawrence as teen fighter Katniss Everdeen.

Though he’s tasted disappointment plenty of times, this was a different story. “There’ve been a lot of little let-downs. But with Hunger Games, I said out loud, if I didn’t get it, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t know what that meant because I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he says with a laugh.

“I’ve never read a role I connected with as much or thought I was as right for in my whole life. Peeta had this strong belief that you have to stay true to yourself, and that’s like my biggest moral as a human being. As well he has a very kind of self-deprecating sense of humour. His voice and his existence was who I was.”

The anticipation is such that he, Lawrence and author Suzanne Collins have already been on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. And there’ve been the usual heated (OMG!) online discussions about the casting.

“I don’t read a lot of stuff online,” Hutcherson says. “When you have such a beloved book, everyone’s going to have their own mind. But having Suzanne come out and give me a vote of confidence meant a lot to me.”

The Kentucky-born Hutcherson, who decided at age 9 that he was going to be a movie star, got a taste of what might be in store while hanging with Journey 2 co-star Hudgens, of High School Musical fame.

“It’s crazy what Vanessa lives with or the Twilight people or Harry Potter. We were in L.A. after we’d done shooting Journey 2, we’d be in her house and we’d come out and four different paparazzi cars would start taking pictures right away. It’s mayhem. It’s not normal. But you can’t let it get to you. It’s an indication of how devoted people are to what you’re working on.?

“Put it this way, if The Hunger Games does as well as everybody expects it to, I’ll be very happy.”

Follow Josh Hutcherson on twitter at @jhutch1992. Follow Ricky Diaz on twitter @RickyDiaz.

[Source]

Will you watch The Hunger Games? Comment below!