- Hi, I'm Jena Malone,
and I'm in the studio with Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- So Jena, this is your second project
with Nicolas Winding Refn,
and what kind of a creative relationship
do you have with him?
- Gosh, it's a very unique relationship,
one that I've never experienced in 25 years of making films,
and I think that's why when we kind of discovered it
in each other, we were like, oh, yeah,
we need to just continue working together.
There's just a trust level of I really respect him
as an artist, and I feel free to kind of give
lots of options because I always know
that he has the finest-tuned kind of whittling
visual insight of what the story needs to be,
but he also kinda gives me free roam.
You know, like with this one,
when we worked on "Neon Demon,"
his process as director is that he wants
170% from an actor, and it's not about just showing up
with that much momentum, but every thought,
every idea, every word that could be changed,
every new understanding of something,
he's sort of, he wants as much as you can give him,
and that's sort of the stuff that I love to do.
So he helped, like I sort of, you know,
had a lot of ideas on "Neon Demon"
and also "Too Old to Die Young,"
and he's kind of allowed me to write my own material
and kind of just like sculpt and create
and figure out timelines, and the whole design
of Diana, even her name, I picked and--
- Oh, wow. - All of the,
I mean, every element, he invited me into the process,
and so I was able to sort of collaborate
a character from the ground up
with a beautiful team, you know.
- Yeah. - But I've never had
so much freedom and trust from a director.
So and then because he does very intense
kind of human narrative sort of,
a little bit like just sort of wild narratives,
it allows me to have kind of,
I can be a complete whirling dervish with him on set
because I know that he's gonna be able
to find that moment, so.
- Oh, so explain the whirling dervish a little bit.
- Well, he has a very subversive tone as a filmmaker,
and I think that sometimes it's hard to hit
the right color of subversion as an actor
because I am not only the audience, but I'm the character.
I understand exactly what's going on,
and I'm trying to reach a point of not understanding.
So there's kind of like, in my own process,
there is a whirling dervish type of activity
that happens within mental, physical, spiritual,
and he just allows it.
He gives me full rein of a set, clears it out.
We can do 50 takes, we can do two takes,
you know, he really just opens up the space.
Paul Thomas Anderson is another director that does that,
which you don't even really realize sometimes
that the cameras are rolling
because everything is built for you.
- So with Diana, did you have an idea
of how you wanted to come into the character,
or did you play around with takes on set?
- Well, I had an idea because I worked with Nicolas.
He is a very, he has a very specific tone
that he likes from his actors, but I also kind of like,
you know, messing with him. (laughs)
So I'll meet his tone,
but sometimes I wanna give him variations.
But in creating Diana, it was more the research
that went into it that then kind of fulfilled the moment
of being on set, whereas not only is she like
a victims advocate and works for the state,
and she's also an energy healer, you know,
and she has a kind of like a white witch understanding
of energy healing and different kind of,
you know, not occult because it's the death,
but it's just like unknown sciences that she's studied.
And I got pretty into that stuff,
which was really fun to like research and kinda dive into.
So as I dove deeper into that research,
like Diana just kept coming more and more alive.
I was like, I sent him, we used a pyramid
in one of her energy work rooms,
and that just came from me researching and realizing
what those did. - Oh, wow.
- And I kept sending him all these references.
I was like, "Okay, I think Diana's office looks like this,
"and only a couch and not a work table,"
and just like, I don't know, it was really fun.
- And explain for people who haven't seen the show yet
kind of what, tell us about Diana's character
within the plot of the show.
- Well, I haven't seen it either. (laughs)
- Oh! - I mean, I know it,
and I read all the things, but reading a Nic Refn script
versus watching what is the completed, edited,
music, sound-- - Oh, so you haven't
seen any of the episodes yet?
- They sent me a few.
I scrolled through, but I wanted to like wait
to see the full thing. - Yeah.
- It's basically about, you know, it's a very classic
film genre, series genre, I guess, just narrative genre
of the underbelly of crime in Los Angeles,
something that a lot of people make stories about.
I think this one's a little bit different because it allows,
it's not just Los Angeles but kind of the full palette
of the California coast including Mexico
and the sort of like activities that are happening,
you know, the underbelly, but also what is coming
from the top down, you know, the enforcers,
the rules, the politicians, but also people who are
trying to navigate that and change things
and make their own way.
And yeah, as I said before, I'm a victims advocate,
and I basically work with a lot of people
who have been assaulted by child predators
and molestation cases and rape,
and I help place them in either therapy
or guide them through the law process of what that takes.
But then I have a side business of energy work,
kind of like a metaphysical kind of healer
where I do Reiki and readings, and it's through that work
that I kind of develop a side, an even further
side practice. - Yes, and this is
the interesting practice. - Kind of a metaphysical
crime boss. - Yes, yes.
- And I start giving information about certain predators
to this vigilante that I've acquired.
- Yeah, one of the things that Nicolas said
is that when he was writing the show,
he had just seen the presidential election.
- Oh, right. (laughs) - And it was funny,
we've interviewed a lot of musicians and actors--
- Yeah. - A lot of people,
and directors, and a lot of people do talk
about the presidential election--
- Well, yeah, I mean-- - As the inspiration
for their creative work.
- Yeah, 'cause we're sponges, you know, we're sponges.
I mean, the greatest artist is nothing but a sponge
that's sort of reiterating what is going
around them in their environment.
And Nicolas is the most wildly subversive sponge
I've ever seen, you know, the way he's able
to sort of see something and the truth in it
from such an askew angle that leads you
to the actual truth of the matter.
It's really wild, but yeah,
he was all thrown up about that election.
I remember in the rehearsals phase,
I was like, "Would you like some water?"
Like, I know that we're deep in it,
but you know, there's always hope.
- One of the things that he said about this show
was the whole idea was to create a show
where women were the hope, and all the men were demolished.
- Yeah, pretty much. - That spoke to you.
- (laughing) Well, yeah, I mean, I signed on.
It obviously spoke to me.
There is an interesting space, I think,
that everyone's feeling about how do we resurrect
the divine in the masculine, you know?
What is that resurrection, and within that,
you're looking at the resurrection,
and so you're thinking of like what is the resolution,
you know, what is the atonement,
what is the growth cycle, you know?
And I think that a lot of men are feeling that as well,
the sort of, and there's a lot of talk
about sort of the toxicity of masculinity,
not just in a man's body but in a human's body.
- Right. - And the sort of actions
that it's continually led us towards.
So I was really interested in a man, artist, father,
asking himself these types of questions
where how do women become a leader of hope
without disregarding or completely dissembling
the idea of the masculine.
- There is an amazing scene where you are giving
your orders to the hit man where you're having him
pick a stone, and what I noticed
about that scene is the very,
and this is throughout the series,
there's a very specific kind of pacing in the show.
Tell me about that pacing.
Is that something that is kind of,
sometimes that had you had to get used to?
Because it's a different kind of pacing than other movies.
- Yeah, I mean, I think that's part
of Nicolas's subversion, and as a storyteller
is that he literally hires like bullet trains
to go slow motion, you know?
- [Marya] (laughs) Yeah.
- He's hiring high-caliber interesting artists
to collaborate with.
- Right. - People that are
in the game to literally almost go slow motion,
and I think that sometimes
it's wildly enthralling as an actor,
and I think sometimes it's incredibly frustrating,
you know, but both bring out really real things in me.
So even in the wildness of the frustrations,
I'm still finding like, wow, that I would've never
expected to come out in my slow-motion dive into the scene.
But you know, he has a very specific voice,
and I think that to honor what he wants,
I think it's nice to be able to try,
to try and work in that palette and not fight it, you know?
I think the more I found myself fighting it
and trying to sort of add a more natural tone sometimes,
it just doesn't sit, you know,
'cause he knows his palette so well.
It's like if someone all of sudden
started yodeling (laughs), you'd be like,
well, that's the wrong tempo for this, you know?
So even though it can be--
- Or is it? (laughs)
- Yeah, well, for him, I'm sure he would figure it out.
(both laughing)
- Well, Jena Malone, thank you for being here.
- Of course.
- The show is "Too Old to Die Young."