David Henrie Talks Losing ‘Hunger Games’ Role to Liam Hemsworth, Says It Was ‘the Best Thing in the World’

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David Henrie is opening up about losing out on a major role in The Hunger Games franchise.
The 37-year-old Wizards Beyond Waverly Place star was one of the finalists for the role of Gale Hawthorne, but lost out to Liam Hemsworth.
In a recently released interview, the actor recalled not getting cast and revealed why he thinks it was actually for the better for him.

David Henrie on losing The Hunger Games role
While appearing on The Lila Rose Show podcast, David was asked if there was a role he really wanted but never got.
“There’s a role I really wanted, but it’s the best thing in the world that I didn’t get it because I’m Catholic now because of it,” David shared. “It’s Hunger Games.”
“So, it was down to me and Liam Hemsworth for the role in Hunger Games,” he continued. “And I’ve known Jennifer Lawrence for a while. Like, I would go on, my ex-girlfriend and I would go on dates with her and her boyfriend at the time. And she’s great. She’s so funny and so sweet. And I walked into the room and, ‘Oh, Jen!’”
“I did know she was going to be Katniss. I didn’t know she was going to be in the room for the chemistry read. But I walk in, I see her, and you know, we we have great chemistry. I’ve known her. And the audition went great. It was a phenomenal audition,” David went on. “And I go back into the room and this hulking stud looking guy Liam Hemsworth walks in. It’s like a foot taller than me. And I was like, ‘Oh crap.’”
He explained that Thor had just come out and, “here’s his brother coming in, who’s just a great looking stud.”
David said his audition went well and they negotiated the contract: “It’s a three-picture deal, millions of dollars.”
“I really wanted the role. But Liam got it and it was a great casting choice because there’s a height variance, like I think I look too much like Josh [Hutcherson]. I don’t think it would have been a good casting choice. So I totally get why they did that,” he shared. “You know, if you picture the three of us, like Katniss, the other two roles, it was great, great casting, like totally right. It was good that they cast him.”
He then shared that because he didn’t get that role, he had another part he was in the running for, in Little Boy.

“This is when I was at the height of my existential conundrum. I had achieved a lot of success. I’d made a lot of money. I bought a house, car, all this stuff. I had this stuff that they say you should have to feel successful, to feel like you did the thing, especially as an Italian,” he explained.
David noted that while he had all of these things as a teenager, he felt like there was something wrong with him and it wasn’t “doing it” for him. He shared that he was just living for pleasure and eventually got a bad taste in his mouth.
“And on the set of Little Boy, I get invited to philosophy nights. And I was like, oh, cool. I’m studying like Buddhism and I’m studying comparative mythology.”
He started grasping at concepts about “the cosmos and the universe and what’s around us” that never crossed his mind before, saying he didn’t want anything to do with God at the time. This led to him searching for something “objective” and it led him to change the way he lived and after weighing different religions, he ended up on Catholicism as he like their position on meritorious suffering, “and it all just clicked and I radically changed the way that I live.”
If you missed it, David and his wife, Maria, recently welcomed their fourth child, their “rainbow” baby!
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