Jena Malone: Emancipated at 15, can she do the same for the movies?

Interview, March, 2002 by Scott Lyle Cohen

Two films from last fall and one to come this spring make Jena Malone the movies' current go-to girl for teen angst. In last year's Donnie Darko and Life as a House, and in the upcoming The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys-a charming '70s period piece interlaced with thrilling animation from Todd McFarlane-she's thrice played the girl next door to the troubled boy, and thrice been the inspiration that's brightened his dark soul, at the same time hinting at a razor-sharp edge of her own. That side of Malone the actress, one gets the feeling, is culled from Malone the person, who at 17 wears a badge of independence across her chest the way other girls her age might wear a high school varsity letter. Having legally emancipated herself from her mother over two years ago, she's making the transition from a child actor best-known as Susan Sarandon's bratty daughter in Stepmom (1998) to a young adult actor best-suited to play that age group's most challenging parts.

SCOTT LYLE COHEN: You've only been at it a while, but you've already taken a number of interesting roles, particularly very recently. Tell me what you look for in a role.

JENA MALONE: When I was younger I thought it was important to go after things that I loved, but recently, since I've been fully in control of what I'm doing, I've been making decisions based upon writers and directors; I'm taking parts to work with people that I can learn from. I'll read a script and if I can imagine being able to strip myself down and learn something new about myself through the character, then I'll take it.

SLC: You want to grow through your characters.

JM: Yeah, but it's not really self-growth. It's more like growth through experience.

SLC: As a person or as an actress?

JM: As an actress. I find that you learn a lot about yourself through acting, but it's not like travel or other self-seeking things. With acting it's like stepping back from yourself and seeing what you can learn by trying on different perspectives.

SLC: It's like in To Kill a Mockingbird, when Atticus tells Scout "you never really understand a person... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

JM: Exactly. I think it's important to go after the things that people don't necessarily see you as, or that you see yourself as. It can be scary, in a sense, that you're like, "God, I don't think I can go there!" But I want to go there.

SLC: Where is it you want to go, exactly?

JM: New places in life. I mean, I'm pretty boring, so I'd like to be able to go through crazy experiences and learn about things vicariously, through other people's lives.

SLC: Let's look at the list of people you've had the chance to work with: there's Jodie Foster, Susan Sarandon, Anjelica Huston, Kevin Kline... Are they role models for you?

JM: "Role model" is such a weird term. There are people who inspire me, but [ultimately] you have to model yourself after yourself. It's great to find people who inspire you and keep them in your life, especially in this business where the experiences are so unique and so alien. Some of the people that I love the most in this business are the ones that have become sort of like surrogate mother types who have totally been there whenever I need anything.

SLC: For example?

JM: Anjelica. I've known her since I was 10 years old and she's always been really supportive.

SLC: You said that she and maybe others have been maternal figures to you, which brings up your relationship with your own mother. How old were you when you emancipated yourself, taking full control of your finances and career?

JM: I want to be clear because there's been a lot of bullshit in the press about this. It was me and my mom-she was a single mom-and she was handling all these crazy finances that were over her head, and she mismanaged a lot of the money; to the same degree that I would've if I were in her shoes. It got to a point where I needed to emancipate [myself] to free up my trust fund so I could pay off some back taxes. It was a financial decision. And now we have a healthier, better relationship than we've ever had. Everyone goes through their own breaking away point with their parents-it's part of the process of growing up. It just sucks that I had to go through all that publicly.

SLC: So your mom's not out of your life, she's out of your business.

JM: Exactly. I got to the point where I realized, "It's your work, it's your life, you need to make your own decisions instead of handing them over to other people," so I stepped into control, moved out and began to fully control my own life.

SLC: How old were you?

JM: About 14-and-a-half. I moved in with some friends of mine in L.A. for two years, and then last August I got my own place.

SLC: Yeah, your agent told me that she bought you your first set of dishes for Christmas. [Malone laughs] It's a big step, being on your own.

JM: It's a huge step, but I'm loving it. I'm cultivating what's like to be alone, figuring out life.

SLC: Do you find it daunting at times?

JM: Daunting? No. Sometimes I find it overwhelming. But overwhelming can be good when you find you're so lost in something that it's completely unknown and discovery is the only thing left. And I think it's so important to understand what it's like to be alone, to understand that you can't be with someone else until you understand who you are, you know?