Casting The Hunger Games - Catching Fire: Beetee & Wiress

This is my second casting post for Catching Fire, so if you're wondering about Finnick and Johanna, you can find my take here.  You can also find Trey's spin on those characters here.  We're moving on to another set of former Victors, Beetee and Wiress.

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Beetee

Beetee is a former victor from District 3, which is responsible for most of the Capitol's electronics.  I would describe Beetee as an electrical engineer, though that term doesn't seem to exist in Panem.  He's definitely a tinkerer.  He's described as small, pale, and dark haired.  He wears ill-fitting glasses.  His age isn't specified, but I envision him as being at least a generation older than Katniss, though maybe not quite old enough to have a kid her age.  For casting purposes I decided to look for someone over 30 and under 40, but that's obviously a big range and not necessarily canonical.

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James Badge Dale

I first saw Dale as the star of the AMC series Rubicon.  He'll turn 34 next month, so he's in the age range I was shooting for.  He played Chase Edmunds in the third season of 24.  He was Robert Leckie, one of the three leads in HBO's The Pacific. He's already shot World War Z, and he's currently working on The Lone Ranger.  He plays Dan Reid, who was the Lone Ranger's nephew, but I'm guessing has been switched to his brother or cousin since Dale is actually older than Armie Hammer.  Dale just looks the part to me.  He played a writer in The Pacific, and he was an intelligence analyst on Rubicon, so I have no problem believing him as a guy who lives indoors and works with his hands.  He's also an amazing actor, and would bring a really interesting, understated aspect to a world with a lot of flamboyant personalities.

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Wiress

Wiress is from the same district as Beetee, and I've always seen her as similar in age to him.  She's supposed to have a similar appearance: small, pale, dark hair.  Wiress is much more notable for her personality.  She's crazy, but she's also crazy smart.  She can't speak in complete sentences, but she's probably more intuitively intelligent than anyone else in the books.  So, I'm looking for someone in her 30s who can play crazy, but with smart under the surface.

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Clea DuVall

I first remember DuVall from Can't Hardly Wait (go look at the IMDB page, it's crazy how many people you'd recognize are in that movie) and The Faculty.  She was in Girl, Interrupted with Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie.  She was in the ensemble mystery thriller Identity with John Cusack, which is a great flick if you've never seen it.  She was also in The Grudge and Zodiac.  DuVall will turn 35 around the time Catching Fire will start shooting, so she's in the right age range.  She's 5'5", so while she's not tiny she will still be shorter than Katniss. She's got the right coloring, and she's definitely played crazy before.  I think she's a great character actor, and she'd fit right in with the rest of Panem.