genevieve lajeunesse / capitol / fin

There are no roles for older actresses anymore. Genevieve wouldn’t consider herself old— she’s only five years past forty, for Ripred’s sake— but in the entertainment industry, she’s considered ancient. Casting agents are only looking out for new, fresh talent. People with younger faces who can more easily portray newer tributes. Genevieve hasn’t been able to play a tribute in well over fifteen years, but she’s already played a few of their mothers. It’s starting to get old.

She thinks that the Capitol needs to branch out with its entertainment offerings. Sure, everybody loves the Hunger Games. She owes her entire career to them. Still, the range of roles she can play is shrinking by the year. She’s had a guest appearance on every major television show and still can’t manage to snag a featured role. Gossip shows speak about her on their Where Are They Now? segments, calling her washed-up, a has-been. She thinks such talk is unfair. These are the same people who put her out of business in the first place.

Genevieve knew she wanted to be an actress early on in life. Her parents immersed her in the arts from a young age, taking her to musicals and ballets as often as they could. They wanted their children to experience as many different things as possible and grow up well-rounded. They would have taken them on a tour all throughout Panem if they could, just to see how the Districts lived. While they supported her dream, they silently hoped she would grow up and decide to do something more lucrative, but she was determined to do what she wanted to.

After graduating from school, she moved out of her parent’s house and threw herself into the world of entertainment. She attended multiple auditions a day without much luck from any of them. She received a few callbacks, but they never went anywhere. It wasn’t that she was untalented, it was just hard to break into such a saturated scene. She figured her big break happened when she was cast in a series of commercials for wig maintenance products. Still, she pressed on, never one to give up. Her roles in commercials eventually led to small roles in plays and the occasional musical.

She was twenty-two when her actual big break occurred. After a particularly grueling round of auditions, she’d been cast to play Lethe Turner in a stage adaptation of the 58th Games. She didn’t believe her casting agent when she told her, thinking it was some kind of joke, and almost broke down when she found out she wasn’t joking. It had seemed impossible to be cast in such a large part, and as a Victor, for that matter. Finally, she had something that she could put her heart and soul into.

The production was a fantastic success. Critics praised Genevieve’s performance in particular, pointing out the emotional depth she brought to the role. Some even referred to her as a “rising star”. The new attention scared Genevieve, but it also exciting her. It felt like the start of something big. Soon, she was receiving offers from the biggest production companies in the Capitol.

The next few years were a whirlwind of constant filming. She felt like she was always in front of a camera. With her young-looking face, she was able to pass for younger than she actually was, portraying tributes such as Aria Wolfe and Sierra Birdbrook in various films. She was quickly becoming one of the most recognizable actors in the business. The Capitol used this for their advantage, recruiting her for a series of propaganda shorts to be broadcasted to people in the Districts.

As quick as her career rose, it was destined to fall just as quick. Her popularity began to turn against her. People didn’t want to cast her in new roles because she was so recognizable in her older roles. By the time she was in her late thirties, her career was stagnant, and her personal life wasn’t faring much better. She’d married young, then gotten divorced after three years. He had also been a well-known actor, which meant the details of his affair were leaked to the public before Genevieve found out. Her second marriage only lasted slightly longer, during which she had two children. After the divorce, he’d accused her of being an unfit mother, and the custody battle was long and well documented.

She realized during that process that she’d been banking her entire life on something that was never guaranteed. There had been no promise made that she’d be a successful actress forever. She had worked hard, and she had been on top, for a while, but now she wasn’t. She could still be bitter about it, but she was just going to have to deal. She regained custody of her children and moved into a new, smaller home, something she could afford more easily. When she was offered a position on a daytime talk show, she accepted it without hesitation. The acting offers slowly began to stream in again, albeit for smaller roles, such as tribute mothers and one-off characters. She’ll take what she can get. The gossip around her bothers her, but she knows there’s nothing she can do about it. People are going to talk. She just has to keep living her life.