Brutus, a.k.a. Bruno Gunn, on How to Be a 'Catching Fire' Victor

Bruno Gunn as Brutus in Lionsgate’s ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’

Big Bruno Gunn is fixing to be much bigger very soon.

While Gunn has had good exposure in plenty of high-profile TV shows and movies (“Sons of Anarchy,” “True Blood,” “Bad Teacher,” and he’s currently filming “Barely Lethal” with Jessica Alba and Hailee Steinfeld), we definitely think his stock is about to catch some serious fire. Of course, this isn’t exactly insider trading, since Gunn gives an eye-popping performance in one of the biggest movies of the year, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” which opens this weekend.

Gunn plays District 2 Victor, Brutus, a career tribute who is one of the few Hunger Games Victors happy about making a return trip to the Arena for the Quarter Quell games. He’s big, bad, bald, and bloodthirsty.

So just how, exactly, does one go about playing the scariest Victor around? We sat down with Gunn recently to find out.

1. Be scary, but don’t kill Olive Oyl.

When Gunn went into read for the part, he was given a long plastic sword and told to act as if he’s killing an Olive Oyl doll. But Gunn rejected that idea whole heartedly: “I said to the casting director, ‘I can’t do that! That’s Olive Oyl, that’s Popeye’s girl. I can’t kill Popeye’s girl!’”

See, even killer Victors have a soft side.

2. Know your competition.

After reading the books, Gunn realized he’d have his hands full battling his fellow Victors. “These Tributes are not kids, these are killers. They’ve tasted blood,” said Gunn. But that didn’t mean Gunn wasn’t going to try to scare his fellow actors. “That’s what I was getting paid for! They cast me for a reason. They got the right guy.”

3. Respect your competition.

"Everyone there is intimidating in their own way. Jena Malone — that woman was serious, all the time; she had her game-face on the whole time. Alan [Ritchson], Stephanie [Leigh Schlund], Meta [Golding], Sam [Clafin]… everyone was bringing that intensity. I wasn’t the only one; I was just the biggest one."

4. Use your environment.

From the freezing-cold water of Atlanta to the musty hot jungles of Hawaii, there was no real comfort zone, but that was a good thing. “We were in these massive ravines, with boulders and cliffs, in the jungle — humid and hot,” said Gunn. “It was great, because it added the reality to what we were doing.”

As the weather fluctuated in the Arena, so too did it between locations. Frigid Atlanta offered a whole different set of issues, with similar rewards. “The weather was freaking cold. It was November on the East Coast, in water,” said Gunn. “The cold helped our performance. It made everyone angrier. Everyone was angry!”

5. Follow your leader.

Even though she’s an Oscar winner and one of the world’s biggest movie stars, Jennifer Lawrence didn’t bug out of any of the rigors of the shoot. “She’s balls to the wall. She brings it,” said Gunn. “You know that she’s carrying a franchise. She knows it. You know it. Everyone knows it. And she takes it serious. She’s a pro.”

As we’ve been known to do ourselves, Gunn continued to sing Lawrence’s praises, agreeing with Jena Malone that Lawrence is a perfect mix of Lucille Ball and Marlon Brando: “She’s funny, she’s loose, she’s spontaneous, she’s impromptu,” said Gunn. “And then, when it’s time to be serious and the s—- needs to get real, she’s Brando. She’s dialed in, just heavy. You can feel the heaviness in her soul.”

6. Bring the V in Victor.

After he got the part, Gunn received a call from director Francis Lawrence. “He called to have a conversation, and I remember reiterating to him, ‘I will bring the V in Victor,’” said Gunn. “And that was what I wanted to do — I wanted to show up and bring them more than what they saw in the audition. I was big in the audition, but I wanted to come bigger, badder, fiercer.”

Five hundred sit-ups a night and five hours of training a day certainly helped Gunn accomplish that.

Bruno Gunn arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of Lionsgate’s ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’

7. Get into character, even when the cameras aren’t rolling.

Beyond Gunn’s own physical preparations, he joined the other Hunger Games contestants in months of rigorous martial arts and stunts training. Gunn liked to get into character to get the steps down perfectly. “I was playing with the idea of how would Brutus do this? What influences him in this dance? How does he walk with a spear? What does he sound like when he throws it? Does he grunt? Is he a big loud guy? Does he keep it quiet and contained?”

See, it’s not so easy being a killing machine.

8. When you really know your character, let it flow.

Since Brutus doesn’t get much page time in Suzanne Collins’s books, Gunn created a lot of Brutus’s backstory himself. But in doing so, Gunn was surprised by what he learned. “There was a moment where I was reflecting on who Brutus was. This was while we were filming. And all of a sudden, I started feeling this emotional stuff coming up that I had built, and I was getting a little teary-eyed. I wanted to shake it off. I can’t cry; I’m Brutus! Brutus doesn’t cry!” said Gunn. “But then I was like: let it just be real; it’s happening to you right now for a reason. The camera’s rolling, just let it be real.”

9. Don’t just seize the moment — revel in it.

Not every day on set was a cold-water challenge; sometimes they got to feel like Roman warriors, particularly the day they filmed the scene where the Victors ride into the Capitol on chariots. “You were being pulled by these two massive horses in this big chariot. And I was just like, ‘Caesar! Roman Empire! Ben-Hur!’ That’s all I kept thinking about,” said Gunn. “It was cool! How often do you get to ride in a chariot pulled by horses? With Jennifer Lawrence? Not all the time!”

10. Learn from your co-stars.

While there was plenty of hard work involved, there was also plenty of fun to be had. “We had a blast. When the weekends came, we had fun. This was a dancing group. This group loved to boogie. It was all about dancing. It was all about finding the right jukebox and having fun. Everybody, from below the line to above the line, danced. And Josh Hutcherson … the dude can dance — the best moves, man. I was like, ‘Dude, you gotta show me that move; how’d that move go?’” said Gunn.

We also asked Gunn how Lawrence’s moves were, assuming they might be on the goofy side, since she’s got such a good sense of humor. “Goofy can be fun. Goofy can be good. But Josh by far is the most money. Dude’s got some sick moves. I would stop and watch him and say, ‘Wow, I wanna learn how to do that.’ But that was fun. And it was never like these fancy clubs; it was always some hole in the wall with some great music.”

Watch Bruno Gunn discuss playing Brutus in ‘Catching Fire’: