Career
Malone progressed to professional acting with the 1996 film Bastard Out of Carolina. She was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance in a TV Movie or Miniseries for her role in the film, Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright. From there, her roles have grown to include several Hollywood features. In 1997, she was nominated for a Golden Globe, Best Actress in a Mini-Series or TV Movie, for her role in Hope.
After working on various TV projects, and as a supporting actress in films such as Contact and Stepmom, Malone had her first cinematic leading role in the 2001 cult hit Donnie Darko as Gretchen Ross, the new girl in town who becomes the girlfriend of Jake Gyllenhaal's title character.
Malone co-produced the 2002 film American Girl, a drama in which she also acted. In the 2004 film Saved!, she got top billing in her first role as the primary star. In 2005, she played the spoiled fifth Bennet daughter Lydia in the film Pride and Prejudice. In 2006, she made her professional stage debut in the Broadway production of the Tony Award-winning play Doubt.
In 2007, it was announced that Malone was releasing her first single on The Social Registry, a New York City experimental music label. A number of tracks were posted to her MySpace page. Pitchfork Media has described Malone's music as "pretty out-there – bedroom electronics, spaced-out keyboards, and Malone's spare vocals." Malone's more recent musical work is performed as/with The Shoe.
Malone appeared in the horror film, The Ruins, which was released on April 4, 2008 and co-starred Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, and Jonathan Tucker. She played Lavinia in an off-Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's play Mourning Becomes Electra in 2009.
In 2012, Malone also starred in a two-part series on the YouTube channel 'Wigs' entitled "Dakota" as the mini-series' title character.
Malone is to portray Carson McCullers in the film Lonely Hunter, directed by Deborah Kampmeir.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, Malone was in negotiations to portray Johanna Mason in the sequels to The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. It has also been slipped by Josh Hutcherson in an interview. It has now been confirmed she will play Johanna Mason in the film, to be released 2013.
Read more about this topic: Jena Malone
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