50 Fun Facts About Josh Hutcherson

In which state was Josh Hutcherson born?

Kentucky. He told his parents in Union at four that he wanted to act, and when they wouldn't help he called an agency himself from the Yellow Pages.

Which role did Hutcherson play in The Hunger Games films?

Peeta Mellark. Author Suzanne Collins sat in on his first reading and said that three lines in she knew he'd be fantastic.

What was Hutcherson's 2007 breakthrough film as a child actor?

He admitted he had not read the novel before being cast as Jesse Aarons.

In which country was Hutcherson's 2007 breakthrough film shot?

New Zealand. The shoot was in Auckland, and he said he and AnnaSophia Robb were the only American pupils in the class scenes; the rest were New Zealanders.

In 2005's Kicking & Screaming, Hutcherson was the young half-brother of a soccer coach played by which comedian?

Will Ferrell. Hutcherson was Bucky, the star player of the rival team coached by their father, Robert Duvall, so the two sides of the family meet in the final.

Which actress played Kailani opposite Hutcherson in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island?

Vanessa Hudgens. Her character is the daughter of the helicopter pilot hired to fly Sean's party to the island, where a cyclone brings them all down.

What is the name of Hutcherson's younger brother, who has a bit part in Little Manhattan?

Connor. His part in his brother's film is not a glamorous one: the credits list him as 'Boy Who Throws Up'.

Which endurance event did Hutcherson train for and compete in while filming RV?

A triathlon. He said he came third in his first one and had already started training for another.

In American Splendor, his first feature film, Hutcherson played a trick-or-treating boy dressed as whom?

Robin. In the opening scene, set on Halloween 1950, the costumed kids stand beside young Harvey Pekar, who refuses to dress up as a superhero at all.

Hutcherson shared the motion-capture work for which Polar Express character with Tom Hanks?

Young Hero Boy. Hanks performed the lead, while Hutcherson was rigged in harnesses for stunts such as falling off the train and swinging back aboard.

Which character did Hutcherson voice in the English dub of Howl's Moving Castle?

Markl. He said he had one day in Los Angeles to record the whole film, got through it in about eight hours and could barely talk afterwards.

Which director made 2005's Zathura: A Space Adventure, with Hutcherson as older brother Walter?

Jon Favreau. He chose real spaceships, a real robot and Stan Winston-built aliens over computer effects because they gave his young actors more to work off.

Whose son did Hutcherson play in the 2006 comedy RV?

Robin Williams' son. Hutcherson said he didn't know how the cast got any work done, because they were constantly laughing at the star between takes.

Which actor played Hutcherson's uncle in 2008's Journey to the Center of the Earth?

Brendan Fraser. He played the volcanologist uncle who takes Sean to Iceland, but when the sequel came in 2012 only Hutcherson returned.

In which 2010 film did Hutcherson play the son of a couple portrayed by Annette Bening and Julianne Moore?

The Kids Are All Right. His character, 15-year-old Laser, is too young to ask the sperm bank who his father is, so he gets his older sister to make the call.

Which superhero role did Hutcherson lose out on shortly before landing The Hunger Games?

Spider-Man. He was rumored to be the leading choice for the reboot until Sony surprised everyone by picking Andrew Garfield.

For The Hunger Games, Hutcherson had to gain 15 pounds and change his hair to which color?

Blond. Stylists first tried it without bleach, and he said his hair turned orange and then a weird green before they gave in and bleached it.

What injury did Hutcherson suffer while play-fighting with Jennifer Lawrence on set?

A concussion. They were shadow-boxing for fun when her kick caught him on the temple and knocked him to the ground, and he played it down to keep filming.

Before Francis Lawrence took over the Hunger Games series, who directed the first film in 2012?

Gary Ross. He said that after Hutcherson's first reading he and author Suzanne Collins looked at each other and didn't have to say anything: both thought 'Wow, that's it.'

Which character did Hutcherson voice in the 2013 animated film Epic?

Nod. He is the rebellious young Leafman who quits the forest's tiny army, to the anger of the commander who promised his late father to look out for him.

Which actor plays the villain opposite Hutcherson in 2023's Five Nights at Freddy's?

Matthew Lillard. He plays the serial killer whose young victims now possess the pizzeria's animatronic mascots, a twist the film holds back until late on.

Hutcherson hosted Saturday Night Live in November 2013, the night after which of his films opened?

Catching Fire. His monologue became a cast Hunger Games, with Kate McKinnon as Effie Trinket drawing names and Cecily Strong yelling 'I volunteer as tribute!'

Which Hunger Games book was filmed in two parts, released in 2014 and 2015?

Mockingjay. Splitting the last book let Lionsgate make the series an annual event, with a film every November from 2013 to 2015.

Which drug lord's name is in the title of the thriller Hutcherson starred in and executive-produced?

Pablo Escobar. Benicio del Toro played him in Escobar: Paradise Lost, where Hutcherson worked with the first-time director on casting and blocking and insisted it 'wasn't just a vanity credit'.

What was the title of Hutcherson's 2017 directorial debut, a short film?

Ape. He also starred in it as Travis Wilker, a young man who has to conquer the hallucinations that have plagued him since childhood.

Which actor directed Hutcherson in both In Dubious Battle and The Disaster Artist?

James Franco. Hutcherson made three films for him in quick succession, but the third, The Long Home, was shot in 2015 and was still unreleased a decade later.

Which science fiction comedy series did Hutcherson star in from 2017 to 2020?

Future Man. He plays a janitor who finally beats a supposedly unbeatable video game, only for its heroes to turn up and recruit him to save humanity through time travel.

Which streaming service made the Seth Rogen-produced comedy that Hutcherson led from 2017 to 2020?

Hulu. When it renewed the show in 2019 it announced the end too: a third and final season, cut from thirteen episodes to eight, to wrap up the story.

Which Netflix anime featured Hutcherson as the English voice of Shinjiro Hayata?

Ultraman. Shinjiro is the teenage son of the original hero, and once his father reveals that secret he takes up the fight against a new wave of aliens himself.

Hutcherson's 2022 film Across the River and Into the Trees adapts a novel by which author?

Ernest Hemingway. The adaptation was first announced with Pierce Brosnan in the lead, but Liev Schreiber ended up playing the colonel, with Hutcherson as Jackson.

What is the name of Hutcherson's character in Five Nights at Freddy's?

Mike Schmidt. He takes the night-guard job at a shuttered pizzeria only because social services are threatening to take his little sister away.

Which production company made Hutcherson's 2023 horror film Five Nights at Freddy's?

Blumhouse. It brought in Jim Henson's Creature Shop to build the game's animatronic mascots and bring them to life on set.

Which Flo Rida song soundtracked the viral 2023 fan edit of Hutcherson?

Whistle. A fan posted the edit to YouTube in 2014, and nine years later TikTok turned it into a bait-and-switch prank, springing it on viewers inside unrelated videos.

In The Beekeeper, Hutcherson played the main antagonist opposite which action star?

Jason Statham. He plays a retired government assassin who comes after the villain's scam operation because it ruined his kind-hearted landlady.

What is the name of Hutcherson's villain in The Beekeeper?

Derek Danforth. The tech boss behind the scam call centers turns out to be the son of the US president, which is why a former CIA director runs his security.

Which actress created the 2025 HBO comedy I Love LA and stars opposite Hutcherson in it?

Rachel Sennott. Hutcherson only joined after the pilot, replacing Miles Robbins once the part of her character's boyfriend had been rewritten.

Sunrise on the Reaping, the 2026 prequel to Hutcherson's Hunger Games films, tells the story of which victor's Games?

Haymitch Abernathy. It follows him into the 50th Games at 16, and Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence were reported in December 2025 to be returning for a cameo.

Whose former Laurel Canyon house did Hutcherson buy for $2.5 million in 2012?

Heath Ledger's. Known as the Tree House for its perch in a sycamore grove, it had been bought for Ledger in 2006 and sold by his estate after his death two years later.

Which Spanish actress did Hutcherson meet on a film set in 2013 and go on to date for over a decade?

Claudia Traisac. In the thriller where they met she played his character's girlfriend, whose uncle turns out to be a notorious drug lord.

As of 2024, Hutcherson was splitting his time between Los Angeles and which European city?

Madrid. By then he had been going back and forth for a decade, and he said friends there run the production company behind a short film he had made for a hotel brand.

Hutcherson worked closely with which LGBT ally campaign, co-founded by his friend Avan Jogia in 2011?

Straight But Not Narrow. He traces his involvement to two uncles he never knew, both gay, who died of AIDS at about the time he was born.

In 2012 Hutcherson became the youngest recipient of which organization's Vanguard Award?

GLAAD. At 19 he joined past winners such as Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron and Whoopi Goldberg, honored for his campaigning on behalf of LGBT young people.

What did Hutcherson's 2014 'Power On' campaign collect for LGBT resource centers?

Old computers and phones. The idea was to get isolated young people online to find a community, and he opened the campaign by handing over a computer of his own.

Which candidate did Hutcherson campaign for in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries?

Bernie Sanders. Hutcherson was a surrogate for the campaign, and that February he joined students at UC Santa Barbara for their March to the Polls.

Which actor has Hutcherson cited as a career inspiration for the jobs he has chosen?

Jake Gyllenhaal. At 14 he praised how subtle Gyllenhaal is, and co-star AnnaSophia Robb cut in that Josh 'really wants to be a gay cowboy'.

Which remake did Hutcherson shoot in 2009, only for it to sit on the shelf until 2012?

Red Dawn. MGM's money troubles kept it unreleased, and in the meantime its invading army was changed from Chinese to North Korean in post-production.

Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence won the 2012 MTV Movie Award for Best Fight for battling which Hunger Games co-star?

Alexander Ludwig. He played Cato, the last rival tribute standing, and the winning scene is the three-way struggle on top of the Cornucopia at the end of the film.

Which veteran star played the tech genius opposite Hutcherson in the 2023 thriller 57 Seconds?

Morgan Freeman. Hutcherson's tech blogger saves his life and comes away with a ring that lets its wearer jump briefly back in time.

Which star of a classic TV detective series played Hutcherson's grandfather in the 2003 road-trip film Wilder Days?

Peter Falk. His character slips out of a nursing home and drives the boy across the country in a 1959 Eldorado to prove his tall tales are true.

Alongside which actress did Hutcherson play a massacre survivor in 2008's Winged Creatures?

Dakota Fanning. They played teenage friends who live through a restaurant shooting, in what he called a very dark film with the best script he had ever read.