Josh Hutcherson Isn't Going to Do What You Think He Should Do

Josh Hutcherson isn't concerned with doing what you think he should. "There was an obvious path to take post-Hunger Games. But I made a conscious choice to say 'no' to a lot of things and not really just follow a predetermined [path]." And that's reflected in his two most recent roles. In David Ayer's The Beekeeper (January 12), Hutcherson plays Derek, the evil billionaire scamming elderly people's savings. "The idea of an older lady getting scammed by some internet troll, and then Jason Statham coming out of retirement as a beekeeper to hunt down the people responsible, that's a batsh** idea for a movie." And last year Hutcherson found surprise success with Five Nights at Freddy's, a film adaptation of the popular horror video game. "I started reading into the rabid fan base and the lore that fans create, and how many games there are in this crazy world; it was like, 'Oh, wow, that's a big responsibility.'" Looking back on his career choices, Hutcherson says, "I maybe said 'no' to some things that I should have said 'yes' to, I'm sure," but that he's "happy with where I am right now."

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Editor's Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.

We've been trying to find a time to chat for a while, but the strike got in the way. How does it feel to be able to talk about your work again?

It feels really good. It's funny, like, obviously, I've been doing this job for many years. And, like many actors, press has never been my favorite thing in the world. It's part of the job, but it's not why you do it. So in a way, when the strike was happening, as it was getting closer to the release of Freddy's and stuff, it started to feel very weird. I was like, I need to tell people, I need to talk about this project. And I realized how much of a part of what I do is telling people about it, doing interviews and talking about the process and the character in the world and everything and, and I realized how much I missed it. So it's nice to be able to talk about things again.

And Five Nights at Freddy's is one of those movies you want to be part of the conversation about, because it's a fun horror movie.

Absolutely, it is. And the fan base is rabid with that. And to be able to talk with them about it and engage with that fan base was something that I was robbed of—rightfully so—because we had important things to get done with the strike and everything, but I'm happy to be able to talk about it again, and obviously Beekeeper as well. That was a crazy experience. So yeah, I did a few fun things.

The Beekeeper is one of those fun action movies that you just want to stop what you're doing and watch, but the themes, about financial fraud and whatnot, are certainly real. What did you respond to about it?

I respond to a few elements of it. Number one, I think David Ayer is an insanely talented director. He does really wild stuff. He walks a fine line tonally with making things that resonate emotionally and are grounded in some truth, but then [are] also very heightened and the action world and absurd. Working with him was a big draw for me. And then, the idea of an older lady getting scammed by some internet troll, and then Jason Statham coming out of retirement as a beekeeper to hunt down the people responsible, that's a batsh** idea for a movie. For me, it was fun to be a part of something that was elevated in that way. Also, I'm not the first guy you would call a lot of times to play this sort of out-of-his-mind billionaire, drug addict, crazy villain. So getting an opportunity to step out and do something different, that was a big draw as well.

That's something that's fun about the film, there's this populist message to it that everybody can relate to.

Yeah. The crazy thing is, this actually happened to my great grandma. My great grandma had a hardcore scam. ILong story short, someone called my great grandma pretending to be my little brother and pretending that he had gotten put in jail because he got pulled over after having too much champagne at a wedding. He needed bail money, and they convinced my 92-year-old grandma to get in her car in Kentucky and drive to Walmart at midnight and buy a bunch of Apple gift cards and then scratch them off and give it over. It's all messed up. Then my poor grandma called my brother and was like, "I can't keep this secret any longer." My brother's like, "I don't know what you're talking about." Grandma is ride-or-die though. She was like, "I've got your back. I will go to Walmart at midnight and buy the gift cards to bail you out." But yeah, of course that kind of stuff pisses off anybody off that has a heart. and Jason Statham is the wrong guy to piss off in this situation.

However, if I knew your family and I was running a scam, I'd probably call you first.

That's what my brother said. He's like, "if something like that ever happened, you're the first call." I'm like, "yeah." It's just when people play on emotions and that kind of thing, it's messed up. Any kind of scamming is messed up, but when you attack the vulnerable...

Well and that's just it, that's the rallying cry of the movie, in the most extreme way. Don't mess with the vulnerable.

Absolutely. I think anytime you get a clear villain and a hero who maybe does some things that are questionable, you want to see that guy or girl taken down. It is very satisfying to feel we can create a world in cinema where it's clear where the bad guys and the good guys are, we can make [sure] the bad guys get taken down. That does feel really good as an audience. It feels like there is some form of justice in this crazy world that we live in.

Especially now. And for you, to play that villain, that's sort of a new thing for you. How was that?

I had a great time being evil. I think to like Derek's brand of evil is very specific. When I first came on board the project, I was talking with David Ayer about the character. Originally Derek was written as this three-piece suit, very buttoned-up, dapper kind of criminal. And in conversations with David, and sort of his take on me taking over and becoming Derek, we sort of leaned into this quasi-crypto bro tech douchebag kind of character. It's a very specific kind of bad guy that I haven't really seen portrayed before. That was really fun to get to sort of explore that and build that out with David.

And working with Jeremy Irons, who is just an iconic villain in so many movies.

It was fun for me, because in this movie the dynamic is very much I boss him around and treat him like sh**. And that's fun to get to go to a powerhouse actor like Jeremy Irons and you're the one that's wearing the pants. That was a lot of fun to get to play with for sure.

Now you certainly have a history with this kind of action film, but do you ever look at the work that goes into a film like this and go, ugh, I have to work out.

Not for this. Derek's physicality wasn't a big part of it. I wasn't running around and shooting up people and doing all kinds of fight sequences. There was one big action sequence. But in general, I look forward to the physicality of roles. Health has become, in the last couple years, a super priority for me. It feels really good to just be prepared and ready for whatever roles or whatever life might throw you.

But even outside the action, the scope of an action film is a lot, the production is different from other films, right?

I kind of approach all of the movies and shows that I do from a similar place and process as an actor. But, for example, there's a very long sequence in this film, at the end of the movie, and it's like three scenes that we shot all as one because it sort of cuts away to other moments and cuts back to our scene. And those were 15-minute long takes and that was physically exhausting, because my character is in a crazy state of spiraling and becoming violent and more agitated. And after a 15-minute take of that, David would be like, go back to reset. And you're just about to pass out. Man. It's intense, but it really forces you to find other ways when your physicality can't take you there. You have to find new performance entrances and stuff. And it's very challenging.

OK, now I have to ask you about Five Nights at Freddy's. Were you surprised at how much it exploded when it was released?

It really did explode. When I found out about Five Nights at Freddy's, I've always loved horror and whatnot, but I think that the video game has such a broad audience of an age range, there's a way that this could have been an introductory horror film for our younger audience. It's PG-13, it's not rated R, [so] you have an audience that doesn't get exposed to fun, engaging horror. [They can get] gently brought into the genre through this film. I thought that was really cool. And then when I started reading up on [the game], because I wasn't super familiar with [it]—I am not much of a gamer myself—but when I started reading into the rabid fan base and the lore that fans create, and how many games there are in this crazy world, it was like, "Oh, wow, that's a big responsibility." There's a lot of pressure on this. But thankfully with Blumhouse [production company], with Emma Tammi, our writer/director, with Scott Cawthon [screenwriter], we had an amazing team. For me, one of the things that I was really happy to see that they did was we did real puppetry; it wasn't CG, it was actual puppetry that Jim Henson Studios did. They were amazing. As an actor to get to actually have something physical to interact with and react to, it's a game changer as opposed to a green screen. So it was really cool how that all was executed.

Oh, the puppets looked terrifying.

The puppets were funny, because on one hand, this was the goal [for them to be scary]. On [the other] hand, they wanted them to seem likable and approachable because my younger sister in the movie, she wants to be friends with them. So they couldn't, on face value, be overly terrifying. But in the right lighting, with the right stunt actors inside and the motion and the movements, it becomes creepy as hell. I think they did a really good job of walking that line.

I've always said, Daisy walking toward you at Disneyland in some kind of way, it could be terrifying.

Her shoes are massive. You have large stunt people inside of them, but the tops of their heads are, I want to say, like 7-plus feet. So they're big creatures and it's intimidating. It took a lot of choreographing and blocking to really feel comfortable in the space with them because if they bumped into you or they fall over, you're getting pushed. Yeah, they're legit.

Have you always loved the horror genre?

I love anything that scares me. I love watching horror films, but I also love going to like Halloween Horror Nights [at Universal Studios] and the feeling you get from a jump scare, the adrenaline rush, all of that. Alien is one of my favorite movies. I think it's amazing. I've always loved the older Nightmare on Elm Street, Suspiria, the old school ones. I like weird stuff. Raw was really cool. I like the weird and dark.

That adjacent horror genre too, the films that aren't overtly horror, but have horror undertones.

I also love psychological thrillers, when your character is descending into madness. Like The Machinist, Christian Bale back in the day. I think one of the movies that really sparked my interest in being an actor was Donnie Darko. That was one that I really liked connected to when I was younger. I probably saw that movie way too young thanks to my parents who allowed me to watch kind of anything. First of all, Jake Gyllenhaal was fantastic in it. Jena Malone! Seth Rogan's first movie. Even as a young kid, when I saw it, I felt like I related to this dark, quasi-questioning existence, nihilistic almost perspective as a young kid. I was just always drawn to that sort of way of thinking. And I just empathize a lot with his character and trying to ask the whys in a world that had this construct you're supposed to follow; you had school and their rules, and the teacher and the psychiatrist and all these things telling you things have to be this way. I've just always been a very curious kid and being like, why? I think that movie fed that curiosity in a way and made me be someone that can ask why. I think that curiosity, it's been a big driving element for me over my entire life.

We've all sort of followed your career since you were a kid, and after The Hunger Games, you certainly could have gone in a more mainstream direction. Instead you've chosen really interesting, nuanced projects. Has that been intentional?

My mom gets so mad me when I say, I'm not a goal-oriented person. I don't set goals. I kind of just go in a direction. And for me, what's so cool about being an actor is getting to explore different characters and different worlds and different genres. Was there an obvious path to take post Hunger Games? But I made a conscious choice to say "no" to a lot of things and not really just follow a predetermined thing. That was never something that was interesting to me. I was always driven more by wanting to do projects that were different and weird and cool. I maybe said "no" to some things that I should have said "yes" to, I'm sure, but at the same time, I'm happy with where I am right now. And I'm excited, looking forward to the future. And after the success of Freddy's and Beekeeper coming up, I'm excited to see what comes next and also to step into more of the directorial and writing side of things as well. It's something that I'm really interested in pursuing, too.

Well one thing is for certain, X (formerly Twitter) is obsessed with you. There's an image of you licking your phone that has become the universal picture for gay Twitter to indicate thirst, being turned on. Are you aware of this?

I remember seeing that photo. The truth is, I live under a rock. I don't I have Twitter, and I have Instagram, but I barely use it. That world, it's always been so intimidating to me to know that anyone anywhere can say anything about you. I just know that it's not good for my psyche. But I'm very happy to know that gay Twitter is having me be the memes for thirst. That makes my day.