Josh Hutcherson Talks About the Difficult Lull in His Career After the Success of HUNGER GAMES

Josh Hutcherson’s career started off when he was just a kid, landing role after role in tons of popular family movies in starring roles. As a teen, he landed one of the leads in the hugely popular Hunger Games movies, based on the book series.

This franchise was a launching pad for its star, Jennifer Lawrence, who had also acted as a kid, and Hutcherson was excited for the level of security the role would bring. But Hutcherson was surprised at the way his career faltered after the films wrapped.

In a recent interview on Dinner’s On Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson (via CinemaBlend), the actor said he’d grown up working constantly, and then Hunger Games wrapped, and all of that disappeared almost overnight, and he realized he’d never actually learned how to handle rejection. He explained:

“I didn't learn rejection ever. I knew only success, from the age 9 to, like, 24. Then kind of post-Hunger Games world – because Hunger Games set things up.

“The industry is so goddamn tricky, because they set you up in this way where they're like, 'You've arrived. You now are working with Jennifer Lawrence and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and you're in this movie that makes billions of dollars, you're the second lead of the film.’”

He went on to add of the fickleness of Hollywood:

“As quickly as they're excited to get you into that spotlight, they want to not give you anything else in a way. It's very complicated. So I tasted my first feeling of disappointment, failure, rejection, probably when I was 24 or so, 25.”

He described the difficult transition time, saying:

“It was just like a string of no one calling, not getting any offers, auditioning, but not getting cast. It's this whole thing of, 'Oh wow, I have my career that I've had since I was 9 years old. It's always worked. I always got cast.'

“Of course, there are things that you don't get cast in, but I had only known – the chances are, if I was auditioning, [I] was going to book it. That is just not the reality at all.”

Hutcherson did work during that time, but for a period, he was not booking the blockbuster level gigs he’d been used to. He went on to land a couple of TV roles, and has since starred in the hit Five Nights at Freddy’s films, as well as the new HBO show I Love LA.

With eight more projects in Hutcherson’s queue on his IMDb in various stages of production, it’s safe to say he’s back in action, and with a little more perspective under his belt.