First > congrats on making the staff team, girl! *-*
Second > the only thing I have to see to those people who call themselves fans is: please, read the book again cause if I'm not mistaken Suzanne is absolutely clear in the description of the characters. And if you keep thinking that having African American actors on the movie ruined it, please, the world does not revolve around a race so just go study or do something to change your narrow minds.

Agreed.
And the rest of the article explains that both Rue and Thresh were described be Suzzanne as having dark skin. Cinna's physical characteristics were a little more open ended, but for goodness sakes... why does that still offend people to have African American stars!?

As for a more logical argument, the casting choices are up to the director and their interpretation of the film. I can definitely see Cinna as being Black... or White... or Indian... or Asian... really it didn't matter to me in the end. They captured Cinna's kindness, creativity, and humbleness very accurately.

To heck with racism.

Firstly, Rue and Tresh as said to be black in the books, so whoever is complaining about that didn't read too well. That's not the case with Cinna, and I guess many of us pictured him being white. Still, I don't really mind Lenny Kravitz as him. He looks very "Cinna-like" to me.

However, I think some people are overreacting. With every book adaptation, fans complain about, basicaly, everything. "Josh Hutcherson is not hot enough to play Peeta! Liam is nothing like Gale! Jennifer is too pretty to be Katniss! Cato doesn't look scary enough! I wanted Robert Downey Jr to play Haymitch!", and bla bla bla. Some people just can't understand that a movie is never going to be 100% like the book, just because it is impossible to tell story in the same way in a book and a movie.
And some other times, producers/directors don't give a damn about the original work and make a mess of the movie.

But doesn't matter which of the 2 cases it is, it is natural to complain about things we imagined differently. And fans have complained about lots of things, as always, as the fans of any book adaptation do. And yet, it seems like some people want to point fingers and say that, because someone feels they weren't true to the books, they're racists. Well, in my honest opinion, that's just bullsh**. And we should be really careful before starting to yell "RACIST! RACIST!".

I'm sure there are a couple of racist fans out there. But I think that's not the case, in general. So I don't understand why we are making a big deal out of fans complaining. Something that, again, ALWAYS happens with EVERYTHING.

I agree with a lot of what you said, Asha. However, I think that complaining about characters "hotness" is definitely different from complaining about how BECAUSE the movie characters are African American, the movie is ruined. That's practically the definition of racism. The movie should never have upset people for the sole fact that they were Black.

I think that complaining about the characters not being hot or them being African American is the same: "I pictured them this way; that's not how they are in the movie". Saying having a few black characters ruined the movie is ridiculous, yes, but I still think we should be careful before shouting "racist". We know how crazy some fans are, and many would say the same about not having this or that scene in the movie or how they didn't like Katniss' dress and that ruined the movie. Some people just overreact, a lot.

I don't agree with their comments, but still, I think it's more because of their "crazy fan" attitude than any kind of discrimination. And I say it because I've seen the same reaction with other adaptations (Game of Thrones, for example). And I've read people saying that the GoT adaptation was awful because they didn't show the wolves as much as they wanted to (which is ridiculous, but well, we know how these people are...).

I honestly think that upset racists are a minority.

Clearly people that are being racist toward the character choice and are upset with the actors/actresses used are clearly not true fans. If they were they would be praising Gary Ross for making a fantastic film and sticking to the book as much as he possibly could.
If I'm honest I didn't picture Cinna being African American but after seeing Lenny Kravitz portray his character I wouldn't want it any other way! He did a fantastic job and the "fans" that are complaining about this should try being a bit more open minded and welcome a bit of change in The Hunger Games.

Totally agree. And it doesn't make what they are saying right. It's very unfair of them to say such a thing...

How can they even call themselves fans if they didn't notice that Rue and Thresh were indeed darker skinned. The modern world should be more about open mindedness and very much less about "why did Cinna have to be Black; it ruined The Hunger Games". It just makes me sick that a few people couldn't get past that.