Jena Malone Talks 'Mockingjay' With Cosmo, "I've only been working two days a month."

Jena Malone at the Vanity Fair Oscar party last monthJena Malone recently spoke with Cosmopolitan.com about The Hunger Games, her music career and much more. We loved the tiny tidbit she leaked about only working on Mockingjay two days a month. We were curious why she hadn't been seen on set!

From Cosmopolitan.com:

You know Jena Malone from her movies — Donnie Darko, Sucker Punch, Into the Wild, and of course, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. But when she's not dressed up as a tree and kicking ass as Johanna Mason, Jena has a second career as one half of improvisational pop act The Shoe. Their second album, I'm Okay, drops June 3, and is full of gorgeously melancholy tunes about love. Jena stopped by Cosmopolitan.com to talk about her new record, The Hunger Games, and the age-old Peeta vs. Gale debate.

You just finished shooting Inherent Vice, and you're still working on Mockingjay. How do you also find time to work on your music?

It's been a blessing, because with Hunger Games I have a lot of time off. I've only been working maybe like two days a month on that, so I've had all this time where I can't even really be looking for projects, and I have a lot of space to work on the music.

Read more after the jump!

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Jena Malone Posts A Johanna Selfie to Her Instagram

Jena Malone posted this self-portrait from the Catching Fire set to her instagram yesterday with the caption:

Johanna Mason self portrait in the bathroom of my trailer. On the set of Catching Fire. So excited for the next two installments. When the world turns completely upside down :)

We're excited too, Jena!

Jena Malone Fangirls Over 'Catching Fire' As Much As We Do!

Concept sketch of Johanna Mason's chariot costume in Catching Fire

Jena Malone recently spoke with Jarett Wiesleman of BuzzFeed about the release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on Blu-Ray and DVD on March 7th. “Can I just fangirl out for a second?”she asked before talking about the Blu-ray as though she were one of its many admirers as opposed to one of its stars. “There is so much behind-the-scenes footage. We had so much fun on Catching Fire that I’m just excited to sit down and watch.”

Buzzfeed also has an exclusive behind the scenes Catching Fire clip all about Johanna's look. You can watch the video HERE.

“I learned so much about myself through playing Johanna. I knew I had strength as an actor, but Johanna taught me how incredibly strong I could be emotionally, that I could intimidate an entire room with just the energy I walked in with. You can really do some damage through how you carry yourself in life.”

And thanks to her 16-year-old sister, Malone is also aware of the powerful role movies play in shaping the next generation. “My sister really looks to cinema for a lot. Whether it’s purposely or subconsciously, it’s partly how she learns to be good at this or bad at that, how she learns about body issues, and how she learns to deal with friends,” she explained.

That’s why Malone wants every character she plays to have purpose, whether it’s within the film world or the real world. “At the end of the day, film has such an eternal shelf life — my movies will last longer than I’m going to last, so I might as well be making things I think are important, playing women I find inspiring, and playing characters that I would want my children to look up to.”

As a longtime fan of The Hunger Games book series, Malone chased the role of Johanna, recognizing that with its underlying themes of social equality, Catching Fire had much more on its agenda than pure, popcorn pleasures. And LGBT equality is a cause close to Malone’s heart since she grew up with two moms.

“The message of the film is amazing,” she continued. “As a society, we’re much further than where we were when I was younger and I love that people are so much more accepting and loving. Families can focus on just giving love now. That’s the most important thing. I think that’s an incredible time to be a part of.”

Now, after nearly two decades in this business, Malone is preparing her next big endeavor: releasing an album with her band The Shoe on June 3. “I think every young woman should constantly be wanting to surprise herself and constantly be pushing herself until the day she dies,” she said. “I will always be a storyteller, and I’m just excited there are now so many different ways I will get to tell my stories.”

Catching Fire is available March 7th!

'Catching Fire' Costume Designer Trish Summerville on her Favorite Look From the Film

The Costume Designers Guild Awards are coming up on Saturday, February 22nd (tomorrow!) and Jarrett Wieselman from Buzzfeed spoke with Trish Summerville (nominated for Excellence in Fantasy Film) about her favorite costume from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. 

Who: Trish Summerville
What: Johanna Mason’s District 7 Tribute
When: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’s chariot scene
Where: Custom-made

Why: Because Johanna has to make an immediate impact and isn’t given pages of dialogue to do so, Summerville had to ensure the character’s clothes spoke volumes. “She had to project a strong sexuality and she had to have this attitude because she’s a previous victor,” Summerville said. “She knows the game and she spends a lot of time in The Capitol, so she’s schooled and aware and knows the drill. She knows she’ll be paraded about, she knows people need to fear her, and be intimidated from the get-go.”

A task made infinitely more difficult since, in this scene, Johanna had to represent lumber, District 7’s chief industry. “Whenever you hear, ‘Dress someone like a tree,’ you think of a school play,” Summerville said, laughing. “I wanted her to be more like a streamlined, threatening warrior. That’s why I did her in a bodysuit and not a dress because she doesn’t have a feminine soft quality.”

Johanna's chariot costume is currently on display at the FIDM Museum in Los Angeles. Photo by Joe Kucharski/Tyranny of StyleTo create the killer couture (which is only seen from the waist up in the final film), Summerville incorporated pieces of actual bark into a tightly constructed leather corset, which was accented with three-dimensional green paint. That was paired with Eddie Borgo bracelets that resembled thorns, and Alexander McQueen boots that had vine detailing down the heel. “All of those pieces worked so well together,” she recalled. “Johanna’s dramatic and, in her mind, thinks she’s the tribute who stands out the most in that moment.”

Wiseman talks to 16 other nominated costume designers from tv and movies in his article HERE.

The 15th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, February 22nd, 2014 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

You can see Johanna's costume on display at The Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibit at the FIDM Museum in Los Angeles through April 26th.

Jena Malone in Un-Titled Project Magazine

Jena Malone in Un-Titled Project. Photos by Magdalena Wosinska Jena Malone was recently featured in Un-Titled Project Magazine's Issue #6. In addition to a great article on Jena and some beautiful photos by Magdalena Wosinska, the magazine also features a very special portfolio of "stolen images she collected while filming Catching Fire last winter in Atlanta. and Hawaii. "We were not allowed to take photos on set, so I had to be a bit of a thief sometimes."

Jena on set as Johanna. Photo by Jena MaloneThe Capitol theatre - built on a soundstage. Photo by Jena MaloneVarious Capitol Wigs. Photo by Jena MaloneTL: Are you excited about The Hunger Games: Catching Fire?

JM: I’m beyond excited. I just saw it recently, and it’s such a great film! I always worry about sequels, but the director Francis Lawrence just knocked it out of the park. I was on the edge of my seat! I kept thinking, "this is such a good movie!" I’m just so proud to be a part of it, and the character I play, Johanna Mason, is so fun, with so many layers, and so many things to challenge myself with. Even if this character was in some small, low-budget film, I think I would have fought just as hard to get the part because she’s just so interesting.

READ MORE of the article and see more photos after the jump!

To see the full article and all the photos, you can buy the magazine or download the PDF for 1.99 at Un-titledproject.com.

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Jena Malone on Johanna Mason & 'Catching Fire' in EW

Jena Malone is featured in this week's Entertainment Weekly. Check out why she almost quit acting and how she feels about her Catching Fire alter-ego, Johanna Mason.

From EW:

Of all the terrifying things in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - the jabberjays, the monkey mutts, Stanley Tucci's maniacal game-show-host grin - none are a match for Jena Malone. From the moment she steps on screen, defiantly stripping down in an elevator, the 29-year-old actress brings a feral intensity to Johanna Mason, a former victor dragged back into another death match alongside hero Katniss Everdeen.

"Once Jena auditioned, it was over," says franchise producer Nina Jacobson. "Jena has this quality where you don't want to be enemies with her, but at the same time you couldn't ask for anybody more fierce on your side." Her performance throbs with aggression. "Jena," says director Francis Lawrence, "was born to play somebody like Johanna."

Thanks to Catching Fire, Malone is finally enjoying a spotlight that's eluded her for close to two decades. She made her moving debut in 1996's Bastard Out of Carolina and has been a reliable supporting player ever since. In films like Stepmom, Donnie Darko, and Into The Wild, she showed a raw vulnerability at once deep and slightly dangerous. When Zack Snyder cast her in 2011's Sucker Punch, she seemed poised to break into more mainstream work. But the splashy girl-power flick flopped hard, and Malone's phone again went silent. "I was so primed for more, and then there were no parts," she says. " I was going to quit acting."

Instead of walking away for good, she took camping trips to Big Sur. And she threw herself into photography and her two-person electro-folk band The Shoe (with Lem Jay Ignacio), jerry-rigging an elaborate instrument out of an old trunk. "We used to just go and play on street corners with my generator," she says. "It's all just freestyle-based like Townes Van Zant or Tom Waits."

Malone had mostly give up reading scripts when she was approached about playing a ruthless Kentucky girl in the Kevin Costner TV miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. "She was like the Lady Macbeth of the West," Malone says of her character. "And I thought, 'Huh, I feel like I can really get into this [character's] physical body.' I think it was Hatfields that got me Catching Fire because I'd never played such an evil, feisty girl before. I've played dark girls with problems, bit most of them were innocent to their own destructive patterns." It's that lack of innocence that makes her Johanna Mason so wonderfully ferocious. And the actress is thrilled to have the chance to inspire Catching Fire's teenage-girl fan base to embrace their own power. "Why do I want to model fearlessness for? It's 14-15 year old girls. They're the true revolutionaries."

In it's $158.1 million opening weekend alone, Catching Fire made more than Malone's past 10 years' worth of movies. (The film has since earned $572.8 million worldwide.) She is well aware of the gift of exposure. "I could make the most incredible cake in the world, but if only my friends eat it, only my friends are going to know I'm a good baker," she says. "So hell, yes, this is a giant, massive moment." She's hoping the attention might jump-start a biopic of writer Carson McCullers: she's long been attached to star in the project, but it ha struggled to find financing. Meanwhile, on Dec. 2 she gratefully reported to the set of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

"I love this character. I would play her in an after school special."

VIDEO: Jena Malone on Chelsea Lately & LIVE! With Kelly and Michael

Jena Malone stopped by Chelsea Lately and LIVE! With Kelly and Michael on 11/27, and recounted maintaining her modesty while stripping in a public elevator for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire:

Beautiful Jena Malone photos from Hunger Magazine

Hunger Magazine, a fashion publication, will feature these gorgeous photos of Jena Malone (Johanna Mason) in their upcoming autumn/winter issue. We assume the magazine name is simply a coincidence. ;)

via Streeters.