Jena Malone turned to social media to reveal that she was sexually abused while filming The Hunger Games.
In 2013, she joined the franchise with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Malone shared a photo on Instagram after finishing filming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part Two in 2015.
“This photo was taken soon after I concluded mocking Jay part two and I had to say goodbye to everyone on set. We were shooting on a magnificent estate in the French countryside, and I requested the chauffeur to let me out in this field to cry and record this moment,” Malone explained. “Even though my time in Paris was really difficult for me, as I was going through a severe breakup and was sexually attacked by someone I had worked with, I was so grateful for this project, the people I became close with, and this great role I got to portray.”
“A churning combination of feelings I’m only now learning to sort through,” Malone concluded. I wish it wasn’t linked to such a horrific incident in my life, but I guess that’s the true wildness of life. How to balance chaos and beauty. I’ve worked very hard to recover and learn how to make peace with the individual who assaulted me and with myself through restorative justice.”
“It’s been difficult to talk about the Hunger Games and Johanna Mason [her character] without experiencing the sharpness of this point in time, but I’m eager to move through it and regain the joy and accomplishment I felt,” the Stepmom actor continued. Much love to all the survivors out there. The procedure is extremely sluggish and non-linear. I’d want to state that I’m available to anyone who needs to discuss, vent, or open up previously uncommunicated regions within oneself. Please message me if you require a safe area to be heard.”
During her testimony, a commenter commented that her attacker “got to walk away with no penalties,” to which Malone responded, “That’s not true. Restorative justice was employed to allow for healing, accountability, and growth with the other person. It was a difficult process, but I feel it helped me get through some of the most difficult phases of my sorrow.”
Malone went on to say that she didn’t name the person who raped her because of “cancel culture,” and that she doesn’t “completely understand how the criminal justice system could entirely rebuild my healing.”