Elle Fanning barely recognised co-star Glenn Close after Hunger Games transformation

Elle Fanning barely recognised her co-star Glenn Close when she first appeared on set as her character in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
The Oscar-nominated actress underwent a radical transformation to become District 12’s ruthless escort Drusilla Sickle with the help of fake teeth, heavy prosthetics, several different wigs and taut, taped-back skin.

Because she disappeared so fully into the character, her co-star Fanning hardly recognised her when she arrived on set in the full look for the first time.

“The first day on set with her, I was like, ‘Glenn, is this you? Are you in there?” Fanning recalled in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I mean, she was stretching her face back with, I don’t know, I guess it was being taped back. It is frightening and amazing and I’m like, ‘You look so different! This doesn’t even look like you!'”

Fanning, who plays the younger Effie Trinket in the upcoming prequel, previously worked with Close on 2014’s Low Down.

Their new co-stars admitted Close was unnerving in full villain mode, with Mckenna Grace describing her as “incredible and terrifying” and Whitney Peak labelling her as “scary and intimidating as Drusilla”.

Sunrise on the Reaping is set twenty-four years before the first film, and features younger versions of established characters such as Haymitch Abernathy and President Snow.

Because Drusilla Sickle is a completely new character for the story, Close had more freedom to explore her appearance and worked closely with the creative team to experiment with different looks.

“It was a great playground for me to do that,” she shared. “I had a prosthetic makeup artist, I had a regular makeup artist, we had a wig maker, and then you had the costumer. That was my core team. And we sat down and just kind of figured out the looks. It was really, really fun.”

Sunrise on the Reaping will be released in cinemas on 20 November.