Soon after the passing of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, word came out that the final films in The Hunger Games would use a CGI duplicate to complete his performance as Plutarch. Now, director Francis Lawrence has said that they ultimately decided against it. It's probably for the best.


Speaking with the Huffington Post, Lawrence said:

He had two scenes with dialogue that were left and we decided we didn't want to try any digital trickery with him, so we rewrote his scenes and gave the dialogue to other actors. So there was one scene from Part 1 and one scene from Part 2.


It's at least nice to know that it was only two scenes and that we'll be getting his performance wholly done by Hoffman and not either wonder which one was mocked up later or, worse, see immediately which one it is. As for why the decision was made, Lawrence said:

[Technology is better now] but he was one of the greatest actors, I think, of all time. I just think to try to fake a Philip Seymour Hoffman performance would have been catastrophic and I would never want to do that.

That is more than fair, and a fitting way of dealing with the tragic circumstances.

[Huffington Post via The Hollywood Reporter]