50 facts about Josh Hutcherson: his interest in acting developed as a child despite his parents' concerns about the profession

Josh Hutcherson's 50 facts.

1. Josh can currently be seen in the highly anticipated film The Hunger Games, where he portrays the role of the beloved Peeta Mellark.

2. Josh starred in Journey 2: Mysterious Island alongside Michael Caine and Dwayne Johnson. The film follows Josh's character as he partners with his mother's boyfriend on a mission to find his grandfather, who is allegedly missing on a mythical island.

3. Josh was seen in Lisa Cholodenko's Academy Award nominated feature film The Kids are All Right.

4. Additional film credits include The Vampire's Assistant, opposite John C. Reilly and Salma Hayek, Carmel, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D, the first ever high definition 3-D live performance feature, Bridge To Terabithia, Winged Creatures, Firehouse Dog, RV, Little Manhattan, Zathura, Kicking and Screaming, Howl's Moving Castle and The Polar Express.

5. Josh won Young Artist Awards for "Leading Young Actor" for his roles in Zathura and Bridge to Terebithia.

6. His middle name is Ryan.

7. He is an actor and producer.

8. He is a native of Kentucky.

9. Hutcherson began his acting career in the early 2000s.

10. Appeared in several commercials as well.

11. His first major role was in 2002 in the pilot episode of House Blend.

12. His first film role was in Miracle Dogs on Animal Planet, followed by a motion-capture performance in The Polar Express.

13. He did a voice-acting role in Howl's Moving Castle.

14. In 2011, he landed the leading role of Peeta Mellark in the box office record-setting film series The Hunger Games, released annually from 2012 to 2014.

15. Throughout his career, Hutcherson has expressed an interest in directing and producing.

16. He has served as an executive producer in Detention, The Forger and Escobar: Paradise Lost, while also playing a lead role in each film.

17. Josh is the elder son of Michelle, a former Delta Air Lines employee.

18. His mother now assists with Josh's career.

19. His father Chris Hutcherson is an analyst for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

20. His parents were also born and raised in Kentucky.

21. His parents met in high school in Dry Ridge.

22. He has one younger brother, Connor.

23. Hutcherson's interest in acting developed as a child despite his parents' concerns about the profession.

24. According to the actor himself, he had "loved the entertainment industry" from the age of four.

25. His father said that his son was compelled to perform for people from a very young age, possessing a personality that attracted people's attention.

26. His mother said that he "bugged us so much" into becoming an actor, but believed it was a phase he was going through and would grow out of.

27. Aged eight, Hutcherson went through the yellow pages and contacted an acting agency.

28. In January 2002, he and his mother met acting coach Bob Luke, who travelled from New York to Kentucky to meet them. Luke advised them to go to Los Angeles and begin auditioning Hutcherson for TV pilots.

29. For three years, Hutcherson and his mother lived in Los Angeles' Oakwood apartments, a housing community that accommodates young child actors and their families.

30. Most of Hutcherson's childhood was spent on film sets rather than in a classroom.

31. He attended New Haven Elementary School in Union until he began his career at the age of nine, after which he began homeschooling, with his mother as his teacher.

32. He later returned to Kentucky to attend Ryle High School for one semester. Hutcherson played on the high school's soccer team and has been a keen sports enthusiast since, also displaying a passion for football and tennis.

33. At the age of 13, he participated in a triathlon.

34. He later said of his schooling experiences, "I know it's something kids have to deal with every single day but getting up at the same time every day and having to listen to teachers talk about things I could learn so much more easily on my own, I hated it."

35. Hutcherson has cited actor Jake Gyllenhaal as an inspiration, admiring the way Gyllenhaal "has taken his career and the kind of jobs that he's taken".

36. He has also named actor, director, and producer Philip Seymour Hoffman as another of his inspirations.

37. Hutcherson currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

38. In May 2012, he purchased the 1,861-square-foot (172.9 m2) $2.5 million former house of Heath Ledger in Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, a small ranch built in 1951.

39. He professes that his fame has not changed him as a person, stating, "I love my job more than anything in the world and I could never imagine doing anything else. So this whole thing is a very small price to pay compared to someone who has to go to an office to work."

40. His character in 2004's fantasy film The Polar Express, young Hero Boy, was created by motion-capture of his facial expressions and body movements.

41. In the animated fantasy film Howl's Moving Castle, he voiced the character of Markl, working alongside two other lead characters Christian Bale and Billy Crystal. All of his dialogue for the film was recorded in about eight consecutive hours.

42. In 2005, Hutcherson appeared in several Hollywood films while trying to establish himself in the industry.

43. In 2005's Little Manhattan, he had a lead role alongside his younger brother, Connor.

44. Hutcherson received the Young Artist Award for "Best Performance in a Feature Film by a Leading Young Actor" for the film.

45. Hutcherson's next appearance was in the comedy RV in early 2006, playing the son of Robin Williams's character Bob Munro. He professed finding it difficult to concentrate during the production because he was "constantly laughing" at co-star Williams.

46. He received his second Young Artist Award nomination for his role, but lost to Logan Lerman in Hoot.

47. Hutcherson's breakthrough role in his career as a child actor came in 2007 when he portrayed Jesse Aarons in the fantasy drama Bridge to Terabithia.

48. Regarding the switch from comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right to the Journey sequel, he stated: "For me, I like to do all different types of films and to go from having that awesome [indie] kind of thing that I love doing so much with great characters and a really great script to a bigger kind of studio film, to just cover the whole kind of spectrum of movies is really, really cool."

49. On November 23, 2013, the day following The Hunger Games: Catching Fire‍ '​s United States release, Hutcherson hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.

50. Before filming the Mockingjay movies, Hutcherson filmed Escobar: Paradise Lost, a French-Spanish romantic thriller film, which was released on January 16, 2015, in the U.S. He also served as an executive producer for the film, alongside first-time director Andrea Di Stefano, assisting with casting and blocking shots. Hutcherson said the opportunity "made [him] so hungry to do more like that".

Source: joshhutcherson.com, Wikipedia.org