Donald Sutherland hoped The Hunger Games would catalyse young people to make real change

Donald Sutherland has died aged 88 after a long illness, but the actor leaves behind an incredible body of work that film fans will be able to enjoy for decades to come, one of which will resonate particularly with younger viewers: The Hunger Games.

The cinematic adaptation of Suzanne Collins' dystopian young adult books needed the perfect actor to portray President Coriolanus Snow, and it did just that with Sutherland. He didn't take the role lightly, if anything he wanted to play the dictator for one very good reason — to galvanise young people to demand real change from the powers that are failing them.

Read more: Donald Sutherland dies aged 88

The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian world where 24 young people from 12 districts are forced to fight to the death every year as punishment for a failed rebellion 50 years earlier. It follows Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen as she fights to change the world for the better, and Sutherland served as the perfect foil to her character.

He imbued President Snow with menace and an odd charm, but was still a threatening presence in every scene to show exactly how dangerous it can be to follow leaders blindly. It was a subject that he felt very passionate about, as an anti-war activist throughout his life Sutherland had long pushed for change and the Hunger Games served as a new way to do so.

When promoting the film the late actor ensured that he brought the subject up as often as he could. For him, it was important to get the message across to young people: you can make a difference.

Speaking with ABC News ahead of the release of 2014's Mockingjay Part 1, Sutherland shared how important he felt it was to be a part of the Hunger Games franchise: "They sent me this one, and I just wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to end my life being part of something that would maybe catalyse and revolutionise young people because they’ve been so dormant."

Read more: Why are Hunger Games fans so excited about the new book and movie?

Commenting on the low voter turnout at the time and directing his attention directly to the camera to convey his message, he added: "Young people have to get out, they have to get out and change things. You really do, it’s up to you. We wrecked this world, and if you’re gonna fix it you’ve got to do it now."

Sutherland continued to reiterate this sentiment across the film's press tour, saying in one interview with HitFix: "What it is supposed to do is mobilise young people to change this world that old people like me have created, to say enough already."

And when Mockingjay Part 2 came out in 2015, he similarly said in one interview with ScreenSlam: "If these films serve their purpose they will catalyse that huge fan base all over the world and make them political, make them stand up and recognise what they have to do if this world is going to be saved."

Being politically active was an important part of Sutherland's life, during the Vietnam war he and Jane Fonda helped launch a road show known as the Free The Army tour (or as it was otherwise known, F**k The Army tour) as a way to counter Bob Hope's pro-war tour.

Sutherland joined the FTA tour after Fonda approached him about it, the pair starred together in the 1971 thriller Klute and felt similarly on the subject. They performed in American military bases for active GIs across the US and Asia, and their work was immortalised in the documentary F.T.A.

As well as being vocally against the Vietnam war, Sutherland also spoke out against the invasion of Iraq during his lifetime. For him it was important to stand against such violence, and through his work in the Hunger Games perhaps he will continue, posthumously, to persuade young people to do the same.

The Hunger Games films are available to watch on Prime Video, as is prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.