The Hunger Games stars talk cars

Take two of the finest dystopian future films of all time – The Running Man and Battle Royale – and combine them into a star-studded, gripping, multi-sequeled whole. That - and the emergence of Jennifer Lawrence in the starring role at Katniss Everdeen - has been the box-office-busting recipe for The Hunger Games, whose third instalment, the confusingly-titled Mockingjay: Part 1, is due to arrive on the nation’s screens on November 20.

Anyone with female teenage siblings or progeny will need no introduction to the two male stars of the franchise: Liam Hemsworth, brother of Chris Hemsworth of James Hunt/Rush fame, and Josh Hutcherson. And this week in a luxury London venue TopGear.com tracked them down to talk cars and consider the hideous future that awaits us all…

So, would you guys fancy coming on Top Gear?

JH: Oh yeah, we’d love to come on the show! I think I’d do well. I’ve had racing training.

LH: What? When?

JH: Well, Gran Turismo... I don’t know. When I think of that list, I would place… just above middle.

LH: I don’t know how I’d do. Do you get practice runs beforehand? Yeah? I think I would probably go way too fast on the straight and into the first corner, that would be where I’d lose it. I’d get too anxious, come on, come on, come on, and then I’m out. 

Well, actors are usually pretty fast: Matt LeBlanc was very good…

LH: Matt LeBlanc? From Friends? That’s awesome. Does he race cars for a living?

JH: No man, he’s an actor! Let’s do this, let’s set it up. Head to head! A double appearance!

As we know, the Hunger Games are set in a hideous, dystopian future. So what are people driving there?

LH: Well, they’ve got those big kind of military Hummer cars. 

JH: Yeah, that’s true. But not much else really. Hovercrafts? In the capital, I’m not even sure that people have individual cars, it’s more like this automated kind of system. The individual car thing has been taken away, it’s more like Google cars.

Sounds hideous… So what do a pair of young Hollywood stars like yourself drive in real life?

LH: I just kind of swap out cars. I don’t really have an everyday car, I just swap them, hire them for a couple of days...

JH: I’m a BMW guy. I have an M3, the V8. I like that. Jeremy Clarkson would be impressed with that, huh? I also have a ’68 Bronco.

LH: I drove a Tesla not that long ago, that was a pretty extraordinary car. In California they’re just everywhere now. That’s good for the planet, right?

So you’re both well on the way to megastardom – what cars are you going to spend your millions on?

LH: Bat-car. Bat-car. Bat-car. I want a Bat-car.

JH: For me I love the classic ’68 Z28 Camaro. One of those, forest green. That’s the one. Hey, you drove that crazy car for a while, what was it, a McLaren?

LH: Yeah, I didn’t own it or anything but I got to test drive a McLaren, that was a pretty fun car. It’s really quick. I don’t actually think it should be on the road, there’s no reason for anyone on the road to be going that quick. When you can get from the Valley to LAX in ten minutes something is wrong! Hahaha!