And it's not because she is starring in Stepmom with Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. What's making this 14 year old's big eyes sparkle is that her life feels refreshingly normal. After spending a year and a half in Los Angeles making movies, Jena has moved to New York (with her mom and baby sister) where she attends high school
"Before, I was kind of disconnected because I was working and doing home school," She says."Now I am a teenager. I go to school, see my friends, spend weekends with them, I feel more stable. In New York, you feel like you're living a part of history. In L.A , you can't sink your teeth into anything."
As a young actress, however, Jena has managed to sink her teeth into everything that crossed her path. She credits her mom's own acting experience in community theater in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, as a major influence. "I remember being amazed at how she made me feel when I was watching her," she recalls. "It was amazing to think that you can do that to someone"
Bitten by the bug herself, Jena was only 9 when she persuaded her mom to move to L.A . After doing some commercials and music videos, She landed the lead in Showtime's "Bastard outa Carolina".As her character, Bone, Jena has to explore the painful world of a young girl abused by her stepfather. "I had a close friend who had some of those same experiences," she says "It was something I wanted to get out in the open." Jena then went on to play Jodie Foster's younger character in Contact. "I am still in awe" she says.
In Stepmom, Jena plays Anna, a 12 year old caught between two women: her recently divorced mom (sarandon) and her dad's beautiful girlfriend (Roberts). As the girl in the middle , Jena's performance is infused with anger and confusion this is so real to kids of divorced parents "I think a lot of childern in this day and age have gone through what Anna has gone through," Jena says.
The theme of mothers and daughters runs throughout Jena's next film, For the love of the game , starring Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston, who plays her mom. As the daughter of a single mom, this is a role Jena knows well . "It's a real depiction of a single mother and how her daughter is very important to her," she explains. She just finished The book of stars, in which she plays a girl with cystic fibrosis, and she will soon be off to Europe to make The Journal , a 17th-century film.
Clearly Jena is a star on the rise, but when it comes to her career choice, her feet are firmly planted on the ground. She recalls how when she was a little girl, she made a list of 5 things she wanted to do when she grew up. Acting was first, followed by singing , dancing, teaching and writing. Talent is one thing , but determination is just as important. " I didn't want to be trying to do this all my life and not go anywhere," she says. " But I knew I had to try." -Kitty Bowe Hearty
