[怪女] Why Jena Malone won't play the Hollywood game

Jena Malone is only 23 but is already a Hollywood maverick, passing up obvious roles in favour of darker tests. She tells Lesley O'Toole why



Friday, 6 June 2008

















It is almost impossible to think of another young actress whose career closely emulates Jena Malone's. Now 23, this modern-day American bohemian has, however, been compared with Jodie Foster – with whom she has worked, perhaps not coincidentally, twice. Like Foster, she's a questioning, eloquent creature, who's not quite sure what she wants from Hollywood but is definite about what she won't do for it. Also, like Foster, she is precociously, prodigiously talented.



你大概很難找到第二個生涯發展和珍妮馬龍類似的年輕女演員了。二十三歲，這位美國現代波希米亞妞曾經，不論如何，被類比為茱蒂佛斯特，無巧不成書，兩人合作過兩次。就像史塔林探員，她是個敢問敢答的生物，還不太確定想從好萊塢得到什麼，但百分之百確定她不想為好萊塢做什麼。還有，就像史塔林探員，她是個才華洋溢的小怪女。



Contact (1997)

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)



Jodie in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys









The Ruins, a Mexican-set horror film based on a book of the same name, showcasing attractive young actors and released by Paramount, a major American studio, seems an unlikely choice for Malone, who nonetheless elevates the piece. "It's a thriller about the darker aspect of human nature," she says, with much intonation, and talks animatedly about filming in Australia, which was too sunny for her liking. "The sun is so penetrating. It took a lot out of me. I wore scarves and hats and actually had to make an umbrella with a netted tarp around it because there was no shade. I could still smoke under there, though."



同名小說改編，背景設在墨西哥的恐怖片《恐怖廢墟》乃主流片商派拉蒙發行，青春俊男美女當賣點，這似乎不是珍妮會做的選擇，不論如何，珍妮把盛夏青少年找死電影提升代更高層次。「這不是什麼盛夏青少年找死電影，這是探討人性黑暗面之驚悚作品。」她強調，接著興高采烈地談起洲澳洲炎熱的盛夏拍攝經驗。「日頭赤焰焰，我快變成人乾了。珍妮必須穿戴頭巾和遮陽帽，甚至得用防水布製作陽傘，因為那是個沒有涼亭的地方，珍妮若想抽煙倒不成問題。」









Apparently she needed to. "This was probably the most physically intensive thing I've ever worked on. Very labour intensive, maintaining heightened, unsustainable states of hyperventilation and heat exhaustion. It was tough."



很顯然地珍妮必須抽根菸。「那大概是我演藝生涯所面臨最大的生理極限了。當我必須說出像過度換氣這種醫學名詞時，你大概可以想像珍妮有多麼耐操。」























Malone skews towards dark, always has. Though she has appeared in high-profile films in the US and UK – Cold Mountain in 2003, Pride and Prejudice in 2005 – she does not embrace or court them. From an early age, Malone was reading her own scripts, making her own decisions not based on box-office projections. But it took her a few years to figure herself out. "I didn't really understand why I had more of a connection to Bastard Out of Carolina than, say, The Parent Trap. I realised it was because I'm not really good at playing a normal person."



珍妮回到黑暗面，一如往昔。即使出現在如《冷山》或《排骨精版本傲慢與偏見》英美備受矚目大製片，她不想紅。早期正閱讀為自己量身打造劇本的珍妮就立定志向不想紅。但不想紅也需要時間好好摸索。「以前不了解為什麼人總較能把我和《來自卡羅萊納的私生女》聯想在一起，而不是《天生一對》這種證明十八羅漢曾經可愛過的迪士尼鬼片。原因很簡單：我是小怪女。」



小怪女萬歲！









Based on Dorothy Allison's searing novel about child abuse in the South in the Fifties, The Bastard Out of Carolina was directed by Anjelica Huston and subsequently rejected by TNT, the cable channel then owned by Ted Turner, which had commissioned the piece. Turner deemed it too disturbing to air on his network so it played on a different one, Showtime, winning as much acclaim as the best TV movies do. Malone, inevitably, was singled out. As the title character, she is repeatedly abused in every conceivable manner. Her hideous, physical and psychological ordeal aside, Malone, from California, also perfected a Southern accent.



朵拉思愛麗森尖刻小說改編，探討美國五零年代兒童福利，安潔莉卡休斯頓執導的《來自卡羅萊納的私生女》先被 TNT 拒絕，因為泰德透納認為其內容破壞善良風俗，不適合在他的電視聯播網播放，最後 Showtime 以該電視電影贏得無數讚美。珍妮理所當然地紅了。來自卡羅萊納的私生女理所當然地被各種方法虐待。除了身心遭受駭人苦難，來自卡羅萊納的珍妮模仿南岸腔調渾然天成。









For the role she was nominated for Screen Actors Guild's Female Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries and, at the Independent Spirit Awards, for Best Debut Performance. She was then 11. Now she is one of Hollywood's best-kept twentysomething secrets.



珍妮於是獲得演員工會電視電影或迷你影集最佳女主角，以及美國獨立製片精神獎最佳處女演出雙提名肯定。那時珍妮只有十一歲，現在她是好萊塢急欲究竟的謎題。























What makes her gravitate towards the parts she does? "My strange upbringing?" she says, uncharacteristically short on words but smiling broadly. Malone has already been candid about that upbringing. "My hometown is hard to determine precisely. We moved around a bunch, generally in the Reno and Lake Tahoe area. We were poor white trash. You skip out on rent one month, find a cheaper place the next week. You constantly find new ground, new places."



為什麼珍妮飾演小怪女如此渾然天成？「我的奇怪家庭背景嗎？」不帶感情地簡潔卻笑容滿面，面對奇怪的家庭背景，珍妮十分坦然。「我很難明確指出哪裡是故鄉，簡單來說是雷諾與太浩湖一帶。」我們是窮苦白人，這個月欠繳房租，下個禮拜再找間便宜點的，我們是漂泊的靈魂。」









Acting, though, was in her blood. Her mother Debbie was a single mum at 22 who loved to act. Malone insists she had the bug by four. "Because my mother was always doing theatre, instead of me having a babysitter, I was the dancing flower in the background of Bye Bye Birdie, a crowd person in Fiddler on the Roof." Following the family's move to Las Vegas – by now she had a younger half-sister, Madison – Malone persuaded her mother to move to Los Angeles so she might pursue an acting career. She starred in a student film, a Michael Jackson video and an episode of TV's Chicago Hope before landing The Bastard Out of Carolina. She played the young Foster in Contact, her first major studio film.



漂泊的靈魂無礙珍妮的戲子血液流竄。黛琵是個二十二歲愛演戲的單親媽媽。珍妮堅稱四歲就開竅，「因為她整天在搞劇場沒時間照顧女兒，我就理所當然地成為再見伯迪的舞女，屋頂上的提琴手的路人。」隨著搬到拉斯維加斯，同母異母妹妹麥迪遜於焉誕生，珍妮說服母親搬到洛杉磯好給演藝生涯個成功的開始。《來自卡羅萊納的私生女》之前，她參與過學生製片，麥可傑克森音樂錄影帶，電視影集《醫門豪傑》。接著她在首部主流電影《接觸未來》飾演小朱蒂佛斯特。



Bye Bye Birdie

Fiddler on the Roof









At 14, Malone and her family moved to New York where she attended the Professional Children's School, having mostly been home-schooled previously. A few months later, she evidently believed something was amiss with her earnings (then managed by her mother) and filed for legal emancipation. By 15, she was able to work adult hours on set.



十四歲珍妮和家人搬到紐約，開始到小童星養成學校上課，算是從未有過的正規教育。幾個月後，珍妮覺得老媽在壓榨自己小童星身份，一狀告上法院。十五歲珍妮開始和大人一樣長時間工作。



Professional Children's School









In many ways, she was already an adult off it. Even at 11 or 12, Malone had decided she would not play the role the pre-teen glossy girl mags thought its readers should be playing.



某種程度上，珍妮早就是個大人了。早在十一二歲，珍妮就決定死也不當那種會上弱智美國少女雜誌封面的青春偶像。



珍妮我愛妳！





























見下篇：

為什麼珍妮馬龍不想成為一位好萊塢小甜心？