David Henrie Says Losing Hunger Games Role Led Him to God

Disney star David Henrie has said losing the Hunger Games role of Gale Hawthorne to Liam Hemsworth was "the best thing in the world". The rejection, which cost him a three-picture deal worth millions of dollars, set him on the road back to God, and to the wife he later met through an archbishop.

Henrie, 37, told the story on the Lila Rose Show, in an interview released on 20 October that made headlines again this week. He was down to the final two actors for Gale, the male lead opposite Jennifer Lawrence. He had a great audition. The studio was negotiating his contract. Then the part went to Hemsworth.

"It was down to me and Liam Hemsworth for the role in The Hunger Games," Henrie said. "I had a great audition and we negotiated the contracts. A three-picture deal, millions of dollars. I really wanted the role. But Liam got it."

The audition that almost changed everything

Henrie was already a familiar face to millions of young viewers. He played Justin Russo on Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place, the older brother with the quick jokes and the magic. A Hunger Games franchise role would have turned a successful child star into a global movie star.

He went through the full process. There was a chemistry read with Lawrence, and contract talks for three films. Lionsgate announced Hemsworth as Gale in 2011, and the first Hunger Games film arrived in cinemas in March 2012, going on to become one of the biggest franchises in the world. Henrie watched it all happen from the outside.

At the time, it felt like the worst thing that could happen to a young actor. Looking back now, he calls it the best thing in the world. The reason is what happened next, and it had nothing to do with Hollywood.

Philosophy nights on a film set in Mexico

Because he was free, Henrie took a role in the 2015 war drama Little Boy, starring alongside Kevin James, Michael Rapaport and Emily Watson. The film was shot in Mexico, and on set he was invited to something the cast called "philosophy nights". A group of men would sit together and talk about the biggest questions there are.

"It's a bunch of good guys and it just started with, 'Let's just talk, a leaf falls from a tree, what do we know about that?'" Henrie recalled. The group included producer Eduardo Verastegui, producer Leo Severino and Kevin James. Henrie had been studying Buddhism and comparative mythology at the time, and he was curious enough to listen.

The turnaround occured slowly, over months of late-night talks on that film set. "Honestly, I didn't want anything to do with God," he told Rose. But the conversations kept coming back to the same question: how was the universe created? Henrie weighed the answers he had heard in different religions, and the answer that made sense to him was God. He had been born and raised in the Catholic Church, and the faith of his childhood suddenly came alive again.

"It all clicked and I radically changed the way I live," he said. It was not a small adjustment. He stopped partying. He lost friendships. He started turning down auditions for roles that conflicted with his beliefs, including parts involving nudity or sex scenes. He also made a promise to himself about dating: "I'm not going to date another girl until I meet my wife. And I'm gonna know this is the right person and I'm going to pursue that completely."

A wife, a family and a different kind of career

The promise led him to Maria Cahill, whom he met through an archbishop after he began taking his faith seriously. The two married in 2017, and Henrie says finding faith "radically changed" how he has chosen to live his life. He returned to confession at St. Michael's Abbey after years away, and he wrote a children's book, Is God Bigger Than A Dragon.

He has not left acting. Disney lists him as both the star playing Justin Russo and an executive producer of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, the sequel series. But he is choosier now about the work he takes, and he has spoken openly about the professional cost of that choice. Speaking on the Bryce Crawford Podcast in September, he described the fallout from putting his beliefs ahead of industry expectations.

Henrie's story is part of a wider pattern in Hollywood this year. Country star Chase Rice has spoken about choosing Jesus after years of chasing fame, as Chase Rice says I want to choose Jesus, and Russell Brand's very public conversion has kept faith in the headlines, as Russell Brand is to be sentenced today after his rape conviction. What makes Henrie's account different is the detail: a lost role, a film set in Mexico, and a group of men asking what a falling leaf means.

Henrie is due to appear next at a Catholic media conference in Los Angeles. Fifteen years ago, he lost the biggest role of his young life to Liam Hemsworth. He still believes it was the best thing that ever happened to him. The question he leaves behind is a simple one, and it is the same question from those philosophy nights: if the biggest disappointment of your life turned out to be a gift, what would you call it?

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.