Actress Jena Malone Opens Up About Being Sexually Assaulted While Shooting The Hunger Games Film
On February 28, actress Jena Malone, 38, revealed that she was sexually abused during the shooting of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2.
The actress talked at length about her experience with sexual assault while posting a picture of herself in the French countryside field “taken right after I wrapped mocking Jay part two, and I had to say goodbye to everyone on set.”
She explains that she had asked the driver to let her out in a field so she could revel in the moment, cry and “capture this moment.”
Jena, who shared she was experiencing “a swirling mix of emotions,” gives details about her assault and her healing journey.
“Even tho this time in Paris was extremely hard for me, was going thru a bad breakup and also was sexually assaulted by someone I had worked with,” she shares in her Instagram caption.
The Hunger Games star continues, “I was so full of gratitude for this project, the people I became close with, and this amazing part I got to play. A swirling mix of emotions im only now just learning to sort thru.”
The actress who openly detailed the challenge of dealing with sexual assault without naming her abuser due to “cancel culture” noted that she wished wrapping up shooting for The Hunger Games project “wasn’t tied to such a traumatic event for me, but that is the real wildness of life I guess. How to hold the chaos with the beauty.”
She tells her followers about her healing journey: “I’ve worked very hard to heal and learn thru restorative justice how to make peace with the person who violated me and makes peace with myself. It’s been hard to talk about the hunger games and Johanna Mason (her character) without feeling the sharpness of this moment in time, but I’m ready to move thru it and reclaim the joy and accomplishment I felt.”
The restorative justice healing process differs from the criminal justice method of holding sexual abusers accountable. Instead of jailing the abuser, the restorative method focuses attention on how the healing process of the abuser can be facilitated and the abuser atoning for their actions in a way that enables the victim to heal.
Ending her post, she sends “lots of love” to “survivors out there,” reminding them that the healing process is “so slow and non-linear,” while reminding her followers that she’s “here for anyone who needs to talk or vent or open uncommunicated spaces within themselves.”
