Buttercupgate: Suzanne Collins Forces Director of Hunger Games to Fire Cat Who Played Buttercup, Part Recast

Posted on November 27, 2013

Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games, really threw her weight around for the second film in the trilogy, Catching Fire. In an interview with io9.com director Francis Lawrence revealed that Ms Collins and her legions of fans were extremely unhappy with the casting of Primrose's cat Buttercup in the first film. Collins insisted that the part be recast with a cat who looked more Buttercup-ish. Lawrence explained the recasting:

"You know what that was actually, and I was happy to do it, that was a request from Nina the producer and Suzanne the author. That they thought the cat from the first movie was not the way he was described in the book. And that had annoyed a bunch of fans, and things like that. But it also just kind of bothered them that Buttercup was not a black and white cat. So I was happy to get one that felt like the Buttercup of the book."

In the interview Lawrence refers to the incident as "The Buttercup Situation." When pressed, Lawrence said that Collins worked closely with him on the film and that this was the only change that the author demanded.

Clearly this is all a smokescreen for what really happened. We heard that the first cat was a real diva who refused to come out of her trailer on time, insisted on gourmet treats before each take and generally didn't get along with star Jennifer Lawrence.