[IMG:L]With a nuanced, probing voice that acts as the subconscious observer for the startling events that unfold in Chris McCandless’ finite voyage, Into the Wild’s Jena Malone is clearly a conscious casting choice made by Sean Penn.
Widely acclaimed as one of the finest young talents of her generation, she made her debut and earned the first of many awards in Anjelica Huston’s Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)–leading her to work with some of Hollywood’s finest in Contact (1997), For the Love of the Game (1999) Donnie Darko (2001) and Saved! (2004). Supplementing her impressive, interesting career, Malone next stars in the Penn‘s adventure-drama, Into the Wild.
Based on the true, tragic story of lone wanderer and adventurer Christopher McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, Malone’s watchful character provides the film’s narrations through the eyes of Chris’ sister, Carine. Collaborating with the real Carine, poet Sharon Olds and Penn, she recreates and elucidates an unspeakable and spiritual bond shared by the brother-sister duo, living in an abusive household.
While attending the Toronto International Film Festival, the exuberant star divulged the importance of making Into the Wild, the intricate collaboration process and metamorphosing into Carine McCandless.
[IMG:R]HW: You’re not seen as much as you’re heard. What was it like for you to do Into the Wild‘s narration?
JM: Well it’s interesting. I got to do some really experimental stuff in a film called The Container. The only sound you hear in the film is the voiceover–basically almost an hour and a half of speaking straight through the consciousness. So it’s cool to sort of take what I learned from that to just know that I’m going to build something more–a central palette which has the most meaning, I think, as an actor.
HW: Interesting. The voiceover gave you a space to experiment?
JM: It’s not necessarily the full character I was creating. I was allowed to show or hide things on screen through that I’d be allowed to reveal in the voice over and vice versa.
HW: Did you have to do many takes to get the narration right in this film?
JM: Yeah, I mean the thing is we probably did several passes over the course of a year and half. We did a pass before we even started filming. We did half passes during filming … and the voiceover changed all the time.
Hollywood.com: How young a character are you playing?
Jena Malone: She goes from 16 to 19.
HW: Did you record in different locations?
JM: No, actually I was in Reno. Sometimes we would do it over the phone. Also my voice changes, which is strange. It’s funny that it’s changing and I’m just learning how to control it.
HW: You tried to control it to sound younger or more mature?
JM: No not necessarily, there was a just a voice that I found the first time we did it that I fell in love with. That can be very dangerous falling in love with the first creation because the very first creation can be the hardest one to replicate.
HW: But it was hard to keep that tone consistent?
JM: I remember when I almost had strep throat and definitely the voice was changing. So throat consistency changed if I smoked too many cigarettes, or had a late night or a cough or something. Everything can affect it.
HW: Did your own emancipation from your home have an effect on your character?
JM: From my own journey of just becoming who I am? I 100 percent identify with Chris’ own internal struggle of having this home built for you as a child with a sense of security, a sense of safety. And it’s built by your parents, your peers and teachers. Then you get to a point where you have to form a sense of detachment from it all to find out what your heart truly is attached to. That could take years or it could take one moment in your life.
[IMG:L]HW: Young actors need a process to fall back on and you are clearly intuitive about the way you work. Did you talk to Sean Penn about accessing certain tools? And are you studying acting?
JM: I never studied acting. I read a few books and I was a little put off by them. I don’t know, everyone has a different practice. For me, I created my craft as I went along. I created my structure. I created my rules and I created my rituals. I keep them in a bag on the side. Those rules–not only do I create–sometimes come from watching other actors and seeing how they practice and focus in the midst of a chaotic environment.
HW: There are numerous processes, I suppose…
JM: Sometimes I believe there are more strange ways to approach to learning something. You could sort of tap into a collective consciousness; something that has been learned over millions of years, that somehow is inside of your genes.
HW: Obviously you’re well-read and a lover of words. Do you write as well?
JM: It’s constant. I do a lot of poetry and forms short stories, but they’re mostly songs, I’ve been working on a lot of music, I’ve been writing a lot of lyrics. It’s important. I kind of walk around with a notebook. It’s whatever happens in the moment.
HW: The whole process of writing and acting can be so cathartic.
JM: Yeah, but I mean this [interviewing process] is a catharsis. There are 60,000 different ways to be able to release something of your past energy into the moment; acting is just one of them. Sometimes I don’t even know how I’m feeling these things, because I’ve never felt them before. It’s really just about being open and honest in the moment, and being accountable for it. So many people aren’t accountable for the moment and for ‘the now.’
HW: Have you seen the movie?
JM: Yes, I saw it four months ago but I haven’t seen the final voiceover sound mix, but I saw it on picture lock.
[IMG:R]HW: Did you know that’s how your character’s essence would be captured, once you saw the print?
JM: No. I just knew what I was doing there to understand the bond between [Emile‘s] Chris and Carine. You need that story with the family–even if it’s just a slice–to be able to have a fuller understanding of Chris the man, and the boy. I never felt it demanded close-ups or detailed attention because what it needed to be was something simple and soft that you could understand and feel instantly.
HW: Did you read the book?
JM: Yeah, before the film. It was actually part of my high school curriculum. It was first year of high school first semester English. The course was called Initiation into Adulthood; I read Catcher In The Rye, Their Eyes Are Watching God and Into The Wild. It was amazing. I love my English teacher.
HW: Did you remember the story vividly?
JM: I did. It’s funny, because I remember reading [Zora Neale Hurston’s] Their Eyes Are Watching God and it’s a female story and there’s so much poetry in that book. And the beauty in her tongue–I kind of became obsessed with it! And once I read that, I didn’t want read anything else. I just wanted to keep writing about that, but I really liked Into The Wild.
HW: What was compelling about the novel?
JM: I used to live in a Tahoe as a child, and I remember having strange associations with these people on the street who were bumming a ride or living on the street. People who were considered bums or hippies, outcasts or whatever. We were always moving around a lot, but we had a car and I had my two boxes [of toys] that I brought everywhere. I was so fascinated with people who just had backpacks. These boxes that I had when I was 7, they became like my home, structure and sense of security.
HW: Did you get have an opportunity to speak with the real Carine and was she involved in the film making process?
JM: Carine was a huge part of getting this film made. Sean and Carine worked very intimately when writing the script. She gave him a lot of her journals and a lot of Chris’ writings that no one had seen; and insights into Chris that no one else really had.
[IMG:L]HW: Was Sean excited to have her as a collaborator?
JM: When I came on, he was like, ‘Carine’s on board and she’s rad’, she’s crazy and beautiful and going to help us. Carine and Sharon Olds–who wrote the poem in the beginning of the film. I’m going to put three of you women together and you’re going to make it [the voiceover] your own. You’re going to pull things from Carine that she can’t pull from herself, and she’s going to pull things from you that you can’t pull from yourself; and Sharon is going to shove gems down your throat that you’ll have to swallow, and allow that to feed into some sort of strange form of rhythm or unspoken word.’
HW: Now that’s quite an interdependent process!
JM: We worked very intimately with each other. I revealed things about myself and my past, and she [Carine] revealed very intimate things. We both sort of stood naked in front of each other. It was a very beautiful creative collaboration that I’ve never been part of before. I was so thankful for Sean allowing me to be a part of it.
HW: Sean Penn seems to be focused on getting exactly what he wants when making a film.
JM: Yeah he’s a truth seeker, he’s a poet. He’s looking for the truth in any way; abstract, beautiful, ugly. He wants to find that. That’s Sean at dinner, and that’s Sean directing. It’s the same passion and the same fire.
HW: Did you get know him on a personal level?
JM: I don’t know him like a father, but he affected me and he really inspired me. I feel like I got to connect with him on a creative level which has nothing to do with my age or his age, or where I’ve been with my career or where he’s been with his career. As a creative collaboration, you get to come together as children in a way because you have to build something from the ground up. So it was really cool to get to know him on that level.
[IMG:R]HW: Where do you see this generation of young actresses going?
JM: There is an awareness that is happening with the young actors now that I didn’t see 15 years ago. When I speak to other young actresses, like Kristen Stewart and Mandy Moore, there’s a certain climate. I feel we have been sold and bought as the same stereotype for so long, that it’s no longer about un-breaking that stereotype. I think that people are starting to follow their own instinctual pattern, stepping away from the formula.
HW: This film is not a commercial film. Do you see your career going in the commercial direction or taking non-commercial films to grow as an actress?
JM: As for acting, the most important jobs I do I don’t get paid for. The most important part of being an actor is all the stuff before you get on the set.
HW: Are you a storyteller?
JM: Well yeah I’m a storyteller. All actors are. You get to a certain point where you want to be more in control of the story you’re telling.
HW: Can you tell us a story about working in the studio and what those creative sessions were like?
JM: The most beautiful story was when I flew to San Francisco to complete the final voiceover. It was me, Sean, the editor, Carine, Sharon and Sean’s assistant. It was basically all written-up to the final last paragraph that she [Carine] had to read. … Carine came in, and she was silent and all calm throughout the day. And before we did that final piece, she told us about this dream she had–about how she had seen her brother. It was very interpretive, very simple. She had written this beautiful poem in the morning, after seeing the dream. It was sort of child-like and simple but it was so strong in the sense of her clarity and where she had been, that she was watching all of this [session] with an open heart and an un-jaded perspective.
