Jena Malone Spoke Up About The Sexual Assault She Experienced By Colleague

Trigger Warning: This piece contains references of sexual assault.

Jena Malone – best known for starring in Donnie Darko and the Hunger Games trilogy – has alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a co-worker while filming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. The actor shared her story alongside an old photograph taken shortly after the end of filming. “We were shooting in a beautiful estate in the countryside of France and I asked the driver to let me out in this field so I could cry and capture this moment.” The shot shows Malone standing alone in a wheat field. “This time in Paris was extremely hard for me,” she continues. “[I] was going through a bad break up and also was sexually assaulted by someone I had worked with.”

Malone goes onto explain how she has attempted to move forward. ”I was so full of gratitude for this project, the people I became close with and this amazing part I got to play,” she writes. “A swirling mix of emotions I'm only now just learning to sort through. I wish it 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. I’ve worked very hard to heal and learn through restorative justice, how to make peace with the person who violated me and make peace with myself.”

“It’s been hard to talk about The Hunger Games and [Malone’s character] Johanna Mason without feeling the sharpness of this moment in time but I’m ready to move through it and reclaim the joy and accomplishment I felt. Lots of love to you survivors out there. The process is so slow and nonlinear. I want to say I'm here for anyone who needs to talk or vent or open uncommunicated spaces within themselves. Please DM me if you need a safe space to be heard.”

What is Restorative Justice?

Responding to commenters below the post, Malone also further explained her chosen approach to processing the event. “I used restorative justice to allow healing and accountability and growth with the other person,” she said. “It was a hard process but one I believe truly helped me move through some of the hardest parts of the grief”

Restorative Justice often involves organising a safely mediated meeting between an offender and survivor, providing a space for both to share their experiences, and to settle on a route and resolution moving forward. An offender might apologise or make other kinds of amends at the end of the meeting.

“Restorative practice supports people to recognise that all of their activities affect others and that people are responsible for their choices and actions and can be held accountable for them,” explain the Restorative Justice Council, a UK-based organisation, on their official website. “It enables people to reflect on how they interact with each other and consider how best to prevent harm and conflict.”

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, The Survivors Trust offer information, advice, and specialist support on their official website.