Casting ‘Catching Fire’: The case against Kristen Bell as Johanna Mason

It’s been about two weeks since my first Casting “Catching Fire” post, in which I came down hard against True Blood hunk Ryan Kwanten as one-time Hunger Games victor Finnick Odair, and I’ll be honest. It’s taken me almost 10 days to write this post because it has been so hard to try and figure out which female actress should play Johanna Mason, another previous Hunger Games champ we meet in Catching Fire. Why? Oh, let me tell you why.

First, because Johanna Mason is a total badass — in a real bitchy way. About 20 years old and from District 7 (industry: lumber), Johanna won  her Hunger Games with manipulative deception, pretending to be weak, hungry and exhausted when actually she was just biding her time. Skilled at throwing axes and sarcastic comebacks, she rubs Katniss Everdeen the wrong way (by stripping naked in front of her nearly immediately after the two meet), but Katniss begrudgingly acknowledges that Johanna has a “wicked ability to murder.”  

Nevertheless, Johanna isn’t just some bloodthirsty butcher; few people in the Hunger Games ever really are. Instead, her old friendship with Finnick hints at a hidden trauma, the kind only people who have lost everything can understand, and that’s confirmed when she tells Katniss that everyone she has ever loved is dead. Thanks, President Snow! Man, the kindness of that guy.

So those are Johanna’s main qualities: Great at killing, bad at feelings. The actress who would play her would need to be young but with a sincere ability to convey pain and suffering, as well as some genuine toughness. Much like the actor playing Finnick needs to walk a thin line between perfect physical specimen and broken wreck, so would the one stepping into Johanna’s shoes — and Kristen Bell is not it.

Bell, of Veronica Mars, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a slew of poor rom-coms and that Showtime program House of Lies no one is watching, started campaigning for the role of Johanna back in 2011, before The Hunger Games was even fully cast. She gave interviews about wanting to be Johanna, pursued meetings with film execs, and even had a Hunger Games-themed birthday party in January 2012. She told the Huffington Post, “All my friends dressed as the characters and I dressed as Katniss. I was head-to-toe in spandex with a fire cape and carried a bow and arrow.”

Which, cool. Great, glad you had fun, Kristen. But you know how old she turned this year? 30. You know how old Johanna is? Yup, I said it, 20. So a full decade of difference … and Bell, though legitimately curious and conniving in Veronica Mars, hasn’t really done anything as good since. She worked well as the catty, clueless ex-girlfriend in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and sure, I enjoyed her as an off-puttingly hard-working caterer in Party Down, and yes, I only watch Gossip Girl for her narration. (Seriously!) But nothing about any of those roles makes me think, “Oh, yeah, Kristen Bell can throw a mean axe and chop up enemies with the best of them!” That thought bubble will never, ever float outside of my head.

So who else is there? It’s hard to think about young female actresses without inevitably stumbling upon Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Emma Stone, Emma Watson, and all those girls from Glee, but no thanks. Stewart is overexposed enough as it is; Lively is simply a poor actress (can Hollywood stop trying to make us believe she’s not?); Stone is cute, but perhaps with too bubbly of a reputation; and I just can’t imagine Hermione Granger killing anyone, despite all her book-smarts. I didn’t mention any of the girls from Glee because that idea is too terrible to bear.

How about some other choices? Carey Mulligan — she seems too feminine and fragile, which is good considering she’s playing Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby later this year, but I don’t necessarily see her in such a heavy action movie. Chloe Moretz — clearly awesome, as we saw in Kick-Ass, but perhaps too young to play a 20-year-old since she’s barely 15. Mila Kunis — too gorgeous; it would be distracting. Jessica Biel — I would boycott the movie. So. Hard.

After much inner turmoil, I finally decided on these five names as my top contenders, even though I can find something wrong with each one of them:

Saoirse Ronan: Wonderful in 2011’s Hanna; that thriller proved she can deliver a good smackdown. But Johanna needs a very specific kind of vacant, haunted look — can Ronan parlay the emotional detachment she had in both Atonement and Hanna for that purpose? And would she be willing to commit to another action flick, especially one that's so mainstream?

Evan Rachel Wood: Here is a woman who has never done anything badly (well, aside from dating Marilyn Manson), from her deeply troubling turn in Thirteen to playing a conceited, evil brat in HBO’s adaptation of Mildred Pierce, in which she held her own against Kate Winslet. She’s shown emotional depth in roles in TheWrestler and The Ides of March, but she would need some serious action-school sessions before convincing me as a violent child-slayer.

Rooney Mara: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo didn’t really meet all the hyped-up expectations last year, but Mara — who perhaps can finally let go of Lisbeth Salander character now — was certainly captivating. Her doting adoration of director David Fincher was a little weird, yes, but clearly Mara has the intensity and a very particular kind of beauty that would work in Johanna’s favor. Again, though, she needs to develop some combat skills, fast.

Emmy Rossum: Do not laugh at me, people who have only seen Rossum in The Day After Tomorrow, The Phantom of the Opera or — shudder — Dragonball:Evolution. As Fiona Gallagher on Showtime’s Shameless, Rossum is fierce, scrappy and filled with a kind of get-me-out-of-here longing that would transfer well into Johanna’s similar yearnings for a better life. There’s something very sweet, very broken, and very resilient about Fiona, and Rossum has that character nailed — and Johanna isn’t too far of a stretch.

Eliza Dushku/Michelle Rodriguez:  Sigh! Alas! Both of these tried-and-true badasses are too old for Johanna Mason, with Dushku being 31 and Rodriguez 33, but would you ever pick a fight with them? Doubtful. As Faith in Buffy theVampire Slayer and Letty in the Fast and Furious franchise, respectively, Dushku and Rodriguez have proven they’re forces to be reckoned with. Not only can they beat your face in, but they don’t cry — they get even, exactly what Johanna would do. But if Bell is too old for the role at 30, then Dushku and Rodriguez are, too — even though they’re clearly the right kind of actress for the part.

But like, see what I did there? It’s nice that Bell wants the role of Johanna Mason so badly, but she certainly should have a slew of competition — and that’s a good thing. And may the odds be ever in the favor of someone building a time machine so Dushku and Rodriguez can erase a decade off their careers and get into the thick of that action. A girl can dream.