Jena Malone is Foam magazine's February cover girl. In the issue, which hits newsstands on January 14th, Malone talks about her passion for photography and music, her start in the business and how she maintains a level head in Hollywood.
All Photos by Andrew Stiles for FOAMUPDATE: Photos and Article from Jena Malone's February Foam Magazine Cover Issue
If Hollywood were high school—and let’s face it, it pretty much is—Jena Malone would be the cool, artsy chick who marches to the blissed-out beat of her own drum. Off the red carpet, the 29-year-old actress eschews fancy designer labels in favor of $15 Etsy finds. And in her free time, she’s apt to be shooting dreamy photographs or tinkering around on The Shoe, a zany-looking instrument she jerry-rigged out of an old steamer trunk.
See the rest of the article and photos after the jump!
Then, of course, there’s her film resumé—an impressive mix of cult-status indies (Donnie Darko), big-budget blockbusters (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) and the odd TV miniseries (Hatfields & McCoys)—that speaks more to caprice than calculation. “I don’t put too much pressure on my career path because tomorrow I could get a script where it’s, like, full-on performance art, and I’d be playing a tree and I could think, That’s really what I want to do next,” she says.
Of course, if there's a common thread that runs through Malone's body of work, it's her consistent ability to deliver the sort of intense, multifaceted performances that leave you riveted to your seat. "She can express stuff with her eyes that's hard to put in words," says director M. Blash, who cast Malone to star in his upcoming indie thriller, The Wait. "Her physical commitment to the role was inspiring. While we were shooting, she climbed mountains, descended into volcanic caves [and] fell bare-kneed onto the dicey ground of the forest over and over without complaining."
In person, Malone looks more like your pretty best friend than an ultraglamorous movie star. Like all the best actresses, her features speak at cross-purposes: A sly mouth offsets soulful eyes; a regal forehead atones for the youthful plumpness of her cheeks. At one point, Malone admits, she felt insecure about her looks. "I wrote a poem about four years ago when I was feeling down and out about my beauty and the dating scene. It's about how maybe a woman's true beauty is only meant to be seen after she's dead. I know, it's kind of dark," she laughs.
Today, however, Malone practically radiates confidence - and with good reason. In addition to her endeavors in front of the camera, she's also now earning recognition for her work behind it, as a photographer with a penchant for surreal dreamscapes and moody self -portraits. Her images can be found on jenamalonephotography.tumblr.com and her instagram account (@jenamalone). "I'm thinking of doing a show, but that just seems so logical," says Malone, who studied formally at a Lake Tahoe community college and counts photographers Man Ray, Mary Ellen Mark and Nan Goldin as influences. "I want to start a quarterly photo series that I could just send out to the world."
Asked what creative itch photography scratches that acting doesn't, Malone laughs. "Basically, it's just about control," she says. "When I'm acting, I'm just one of the variables, but [with photography] I get to figure out everything: the props, the setting, the tone, the texture. It's the same with music," she says, noting that she has an EP coming out this spring as The Shoe, her band with mussician Lem Jay Ignacio.
In spite of Malone's other artistic pursuits, acting remains her first love. Her film career came fast and early: She made her big screen debut in 1996 at age 11 in Anjelica Huston's adaptation of the Dorothy Allison novel Bastard Out of Carolina, as Ruth Anne "Bone" Boatwright, the plucky protagonist who suffers at the hands of an abusive stepfather. The performance was roundly praised and quickly led to roles in a string of high-profile projects, including Contact (1997) and Stepmom (1998), where the young actress held her own alongside costars Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon.
It's tempting to make a connection between Malone's flair for playing prickly, tough-on-the-outside-bruised-on-the-inside youth like Bone with her own hardscrabble upbringing. Born in Sparks, Nevada, Malone and her mother, Deborah, lived in 27 places (including their car) by the actress' 9th birthday. Three years after they hit pay dirt with Malone's movie career, the then-14-year-old filed for emancipation from her mother, claiming a mismanagement of funds. (The two have a great relationship, however, and Malone speaks fondly of trips to her mom's house near Lake Tahoe.)
It's all more impressive then that Malone never fell into the cliche of the troubled child actor. Google her name with "sex tape," "rehab" or even "stumbling out of a nightclub at 3 a.m.," and you'll get zero results. Malone credits a strong will for making her impervious to peer pressure. "I never let anyone tell me what I should be doing," she says. "I think that was the thing that kept me normal."
Today Malone continues to enjoy life in the slow lane. "I go for hikes. I cook. I listen to records," says the LA-based actress. Her career, however, has shifted into high gear. This year alone she is set to star in Paul Thomas Anderson's highly anticipated adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's novel, Inherent Vice, as well as the period drama Angelica (in which she plays three different characters) and Blash's aforementioned The Wait. Then, of course, there's the next Hunger Games installment, Mockingjay Part 1, due out in November, for which Malone will reprise her role as the tart and rebellious Johanna Mason. "I think what excites me about the series is that a younger generation is so interested in having people tell them how it really is out there instead of sugarcoating it with wizards and goblins and vampires," says Malone of the mega franchise.
As for future plans for her other avocations - say, a photography book or a concert tour - Malone prefers to wait until inspiration strikes, "I can't really control my crative impulses; I just have to follow and respect them," she says. "It's like, sometimes I crave red meat, and other times I just want to eat kale."