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The Late Show with David Letterman
Jan. 1 1999
Dave: Our next guest is a lovely and talented young actress who stars in what looks to be a blockbuster of a new film. It's titled "Stepmom" and it's in theaters now. Here she is, Jena Malone. Jena, please come out.
::The crowd politely claps as Jena comes out::
Dave: Hi, Jena.
Jena: Hello.
Dave: How are ya?
Jena: I'm doing pretty good.
Dave: Happy New Year.
Jena: Thank you. You too.
Dave: Did you have a nice New Year's celebration?
Jena: Uh, yeah. I celebrated with my friends. I went to a couple of parties.
Dave: Really? How did that go?
Jena: It went fun. It was really fun.
Dave: What do you do at a party? You're just a kid, aren't ya?
Jena: (slightly laughing)
Dave: How old are ya?
Jena: I'm fourteen.
Dave: Fourteen. Alright, so, when you go to a party, you're having a party with other fourteen-year-olds, I guess.
Jena: Yeah.
Dave: Maybe the occasional thirteen-year-old. Maybe the occasional fifteen-year-old.
(Audience laughs)
Jena: Yeah.
Dave: But by and large, fourteen-year-old kids. So, what do ya do? Do ya have pizza?
(Audience and Jena laughs)
Jena: Uh, yeah. Pizza, y'know, we dance, listen to music.
Dave: What kind of music do ya like?
Jena: Um... I love Lauren Hill. Um... I like Busta Rhymes. Um...
Dave: I think he just got in trouble
Jena: I know! He got arrested! He had a couple of guns on him, right?
Dave: He was carrying a gun. He was packing some heat, as we say.
(Audience laughs with some applause)
Jena: I know.
Dave: That's street lingo.
Jena: Yeah.
Dave: So you had a nice time at your New Year's Eve parties.
Jena: Yeah.
Dave: Do you mind if I just ask you some questions about, y'know, where you're from, where did you grow up, where did you become an actress, that kind of thing.
Jena: I grew up in Lake Tahoe.
Dave: Oh, it's beautiful there, isn't it?
Jena: It's gorgeous.
Dave: Oh my God, it's just stunning. You lived there, right?
Jena: Yeah, I lived there for like half of my life.
Dave: Yeah.
(Audience laughs)
Dave: How are you lucky enough to live there?
Jena: Um, I dunno. I was born in Sparks, Nevada and we just moved to Lake Tahoe and I went to school there until I was, like, in fourth grade and then I moved to Las Vegas, of all places.
Dave: Well, yeah, it's a stark contrast, Las Vegas, a little bit different than Lake Tahoe.
Jena: Just a little. (holds her thumb and fingers an inch apart) Just a little.
Dave: But Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada, it's an area of uncommon beauty, isn't it?
Jena: It's gorgeous. I mean, if I ever have a kid, I'm going to raise it there.
Dave: Yes, I understand that.
(The audience laughs)
Dave: I used to go up there, I used to work up there and it's just thrilling. I used to love being there. What kind of things did you do, did you hike, did you ski, did you water sail, that kind of thing?
Jena: I used to love going, like, tree climbing. Y'know and just running around, scavenging in the forest, y'know.
(The audience laughs.)
Jena: I dunno, I would sing to myself in the forest. Kind of embarrassing.
Dave: Really? What kind of thing would you sing, like Busta Rhymes?
Jena: No, more along the lines of, like, Marilyn Manson.(Audience and Jena laugh)
Dave: Y'know I had such a great time when I was in Lake Tahoe, just talking about it now just brings back just wonderful memories.
Jena: Really?
Dave: Then you moved to Las Vegas and what did you do there?
Jena: Um, I was only there six months. I hated it. Y'know, I was like ten. What does a ten-year-old do in Las Vegas?
Dave: But I mean, you were there with your mom. It wasn't just like you were just uprooted, y'know...
Jena: Well, yeah, of course. Um, I was with my mom, we moved there for her job and I wanted anything to get out of there, so I answered this ad in a newspaper and it said "Fresh faces wanted." It ended up being a big, big scam, but, I went to the seminar and it was on acting and I really wanted to be an actor before that and I moved to LA and I ended up like shelling out a thousand dollars of my money to this guy who was like huge fraud. But, um...
Dave: What's his name?
Jena: I can't tell you.
Dave: Now where does a ten-year-old get a grand? Honestly, seriously. Oh, it's Las Vegas, of course!
Jena: Of course! It's Las Vegas!
(Dave pretends like he's pulling the handle of a slot machine. Jena then pretends like she's smoking and drinking.)
Dave: Playing that keno!
Jena: I know!
Dave: So, you answer the ad and what was the idea? "Wanted Fresh Faces", they were going to discover new talent, is that what the thing was?
Jena: Yeah, pretty much.
Dave: Yeah, but from that, you got interested in acting and you and your mom go to Los Angeles.
Jena: Mmmm-hmmm, for about a year. I said, I'll give it a year, see what happens. And it's been three years. I'm happy.
Dave: And what was the first happening for you in Los Angeles that gave you the encouragement that oh, jeez, this may turn out for me? What was your first reinforcement when you moved there that this might work, maybe I could be an actress?
Jena: Um, well, I wanted to act when I was four. I mean, I would watch my mom up on stage, she did community theater in Lake Tahoe.
Dave: Your mom was an actor?
Jena: Yeah, like church theater, like stuff they'd pay you to go see.
Dave: Yeah.
Jena: And um...
::Audience moans::
Jena: I mean, it wasn't bad, it's just like no one would come!
Dave: Gonna be a long ride home with Mom tonight, won't it?
::Audience laughs and claps::
Jena: And I just remember sitting on the piano, because a lot of them were musicals, and just being in complete awe and just thinking, y'know, how could you push people's buttons like that? Y'know, make them laugh and cry and I just wanted to act.
Dave: So that was it. So, now you're in "Stepmom" with um... with um... what's her name? Oh, why can't I think of their names?
Jena: Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon.
Dave: See, the same thing happened earlier when Jon Voight was out here and both of those women have been on the show dozens of times.
Jena: I know.
Dave: Julia Roberts and uh... and uh...
Jena: Susan Sarandon.
Dave: Susan Sarandon.
Jena: And Ed Harris.
Dave: Ed Harris, yeah. They're great.
Jena: Amazing.
Dave: Did you learn from working with those two women?
Jena: Um, yeah I did. It's not like they sat me down and like, we had like a lecture about acting.
Dave: But just being around, you would pick up things.
Jena: Yeah, just by watching them and see how they really put their passion into everything, in the writing, in the, y'know, in acting, making sure the script's right.
Dave: Now, by the way, are you in school or you're not in school?
Jena: Yeah, I am in school. I have to be in school.
Dave: One of those show business things?
Jena: Yeah, it's like a professional school for "professional" (she makes the quote marks in the air with her fingers) kids.
Dave: Yeah, but ya gotta be careful because Ricky Schroder, Rick Schroder now, he was a kid, an actor, also went to school and to this day, he can't read.
::audience laughs::
Jena: Yeah, don't worry, I'll be careful.
Dave: You be careful. Um... so... what were we talking about? So you learned... let's take a look at a clip. I don't know what I'm talking about. You know what we're going to see here?
Jena: Um, I think it's me telling some boy off, y'know, what I do every day.
Dave: OK, here we go, Jena Malone from "Stepmom."
::Stepmom clip plays::
Dave: Well.
::audience applauds::
Dave: There ya go, "Stepmom", a huge film, big, big deal. It was a pleasure meeting you. You already working on another film, ya got another film coming up?
Jena: Yeah, I just finished a film called "For Love of the Game."
Dave: Wow, so, it's like you're in this for the long haul then?
Jena: Definitely.
Dave: Well, good for you. Congratulations. Happy New Year, nice meeting you. Jena Malone, ladies and gentlemen. We'll be right back!
Jena: Happy New Year Dave!
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