The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping takes audiences back to Panem for the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell that a young Haymitch Abernathy survived. Maya Hawke plays Wiress, a past victor from District 3, and Mckenna Grace plays Maysilee Donner, one of District 12’s tributes in those Games.
In a clip Entertainment Weekly shared on Instagram on Thursday, Hawke talked about what it was like working alongside Grace, and her praise started with Grace’s work ethic. “Mckenna is a really, like, inspiringly disciplined and hardworking person,” Hawke said. “And with just, like, crazy manners and, like, so much social grace.”
Hawke said she was “really impressed by her and her, like, grit,” and by the stories Grace brought back from stretches of the shoot that Hawke was not present for, pointing to “the level of difficulty and endurance that was required” in those scenes.
She closed by widening the compliment to the young cast around Grace. “I was really, really impressed by her and by that whole group,” Hawke said.
Sunrise on the Reaping opens in theaters on November 20. Trevor Decker News has been following the film all fall, from the first trailer in September to Grace getting emotional at a London screening, the start of the press tour in Berlin, and her contribution to the film’s companion album.
Hawke has been in the Trevor Decker News headlines herself this week. She was recently announced as the first star of the upcoming Magic: The Gathering movie.