Jena Malone is featured in the September issus of V Magazine in the feature "Indie Queens."
Photo by Jamie Hawkesworth
Remember when Jena Malone made America cry in Stepmom? She’s been pulling power moves ever since: the neo-cult classic (Donnie Darko), the civil war epic (Cold Mountain), Japanimation (Howl’s Moving Castle), high-camp horror (The Ruins), and even a Zack Snyder comic book fantasy (Suckerpunch). Yet somehow she’s managing to raise the stakes even further, by next appearing in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice.
First big break: working on Bastard out of Carolina when I was 10 years-old. Eighteen years later I'm still working, so I guess I'm doing something right.
My favorite character to date: Rocket in Sucker Punch.
Next project: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire playing Johanna Mason and Angelica, a film based on the adapted novel. Also Inherent Vice directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Big budget films are: More relaxed. There is less under-the-gun kind of energy as with independent films.
If I wasn't acting, I'd be: Taking photos and making music or helping build a more sustainable world.
Ever work in an office? Never.
Most surreal experience in Hollywood: Probably when I was hanging upside down 30 feet in the air while having to fire my ump—a semiautomatic assault rifle—on a sound stage for Sucker Punch.
Tell us an uncomfortable personal secret. It's a secret.
Any unusual habits? It's not a habit but I have an unusual skill of balancing things on my head.
Work philosophy: Trust your instincts and always do what scares you.
Character philosophy: How much time do you have?
Advice for the working woman: “If their work is satisfying people don't need leisure in the old-fashioned sense. No one ever asks what Newton or Darwin did to relax, or how Bach spent his weekends. Work is the ultimate play, and play the ultimate work.”― J.G. Ballard, Super-Cannes