Capitol Couture Releases New Capitol Portraits of Peeta & Johanna + Motion Posters

Capitol Couture has relaunched with issue number four, Fida Coeur, and new Capitol portraits of Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark and Jena Malone as Johanna Mason. Capitol Couture has also posted gorgeous and heartbreaking new motion posters ("Living Portraits") of both Peeta and Johanna.

 

Capitol Couture is proud to commemorate President Snow’s “One Panem” initiative with a brand new Special Issue of Capitol Couture focusing on collaborations in art, fashion, and design. Today we celebrate the incredible achievements coming out of the Capitol—the beating heart of Panem. Gaze upon the fervently awaited Capitol Citizen Living Portraits presented by Capitol Couture featuring your cherished victors Johanna Mason and Peeta Mellark as they stand proudly before Panem.

The site teases that the "Living Portraits" will be available for viewing this summer. Will they be displayed as "astoundingly realistic hologram displays" as Capitol Couture promises?

See it all at CapitolCouture.PN

Jena Malone Talks Johanna in Bullett Magazine, "She Almost Killed Me"

Photos by James Orlando for BullettJena Malone covers Bullett Magazine's Volume XIII The Lost Issue. She talks about her band with Lem Jay Ignacio, The Shoe, her upcoming projects and about playing Johanna in The Hunger Games films.

From Bullett:

If Malone’s Donnie Darko experience predated today’s obsessive fan worship, the actress tossed herself directly into the vortex when she accepted the role as the plum-haired, axe-wielding Johanna Mason in a little movie called The Hungers Games: Catching Fire, which to this date has grossed $850 million worldwide. In the film, her character, a former winner of the titular games, is furious at having to unexpectedly fight in another life-or-death competition after having been promised a pampered life filled with the spoils of victory. While on a live television broadcast, she tells the interviewer that yes, in fact, she is very angry. “Fuck that! And fuck everyone that had anything to do with it!” she screams, unleashing a rare, bleeped out F-bomb in the family-friendly franchise. Eventually, she forms an unlikely alliance with the film’s protagonist, Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence).

Malone, who is set to reprise the pivotal role in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, the franchise’s third and final installment (it will be divided into two movies), approached the role with the vigor of a method actor. “When you first meet Johanna, she’s got enemy written all over her,” Malone says.

“She’s violent and sexual and caustic and nefarious. But she has a big arch of friend or foe. But she’s fierce. What I really wanted to explore with her was learning anger. Anger has to be so genuine or it feels so fake, like a fake sneeze. So, the first week of shooting, I didn’t talk to anyone. I needed to have this intimidation factor. I had all this [angry] energy surging through me. She almost killed me. A month and a half in, I learned how to turn her off, but at first she was dangerous.”

Read more at BullettMedia.com

Jena Malone Talks 'Mockingjay' on Her Reddit AMA

Jena Malone and Lem Jay Ignacio did a reddit AMA this morning in support of their band The Shoe's upcoming debut album release (be sure to check out I'm Okay on June 3. Pre-order in their store or iTunes). Jena answered some of your Mockingjay questions during the Q&A and even confirmed  - once again - that she's a Joniss shipper.

We've transcribed all the Hunger Games/Mockingjay-related questions for you but you can also check out the entire reddit AMA HERE.

I've always wondered this about movies - did you really strip naked during the elevator scene in Catching Fire, or did you have something to cover up?

naked!
hahah no not really. I had little stickers on parts I wanted covered

Has it been difficult to interpret Johanna in Mockingjay?

Mockingjay is a whole new world !! It's very thrilling and nerve wracking making it perfect.

First, thanks for doing this AMA! And congrats on the new album! I pre-ordered the vinyl and I'm super psyched to hear it! (Spoilers ahead for those silly enough not to have read the Hunger Games trilogy..)
For Jena - I'm a huge fan of your work and particularly fond of Johanna. Since we only experience Katniss's perception of Johanna after her torture in Mockingjay, how did you get inside her head? How different was portraying this Johanna from the one we know in Catching Fire?

PS - I know you were upset they didn't make a Johanna Mason barbie, and I may or may not definitely have gotten one commissioned by this badass girl who does amazing custom barbies. When I get it, I will definitely post you a photo!

Johanna was very hard bird to crack. I think the first entry into her was discovering what true anger felt like and living in it for a prolonged amount of time.
Can't wait to see a little Johanna doll!

I would like to ask Jena, what was it like to act along with such amazing group in Catching Fire? What would you say about Jennifer Lawrence? And I love The Shoe, really want to get that album. xx

Its been a dream working with the Hunger Games cast. I love them all so much. Jenn is the best person ever (besides my little sister) and she is truly inspiring to work with

Hey Jena, do you have an OTP (One True Pairing) from the Hunger Games? x

I don't know what this is.

You guys create such beautiful music together, you should be seriously proud. Thank you for becoming The Shoe and sharing your magic with us! Jena, YOU SHIP JONISS. You don't understand how crazy we all went when you replied to a fans twitter question the other day and answered with 'Joniss.' How did you come to like Johanna and Katniss together, and do you see them purely as a friendship or do you see the chemistry that hundreds of us can totally see?! Joniss rules.

I recently discovered the whole "joniss" phenomenon and think it is so amazing that the fans have created our backstorys and worlds out of these characters!! I can't help but love it!

Jena, what was the most rewarding experience in filming Catching Fire? Also, did anything funny happen on set? I preordered the signed album. I can't wait!

The most rewarding experience was getting to work the amazing cast. We have all kind of fallen in love with each other so going to work every day is such a treat

Hi Jena! Big fan of yours since Sucker Punch, also loved you as Johanna Mason and congratulations on The Shoe. My question is how was it like filming the Hunger Games now knowing that the end is approaching & that you'll no longer play Johanna Mason?

It makes me sad, actually.

Jena, what was your favourite part of playing Johanna?

The fans!

Hey Jena, do you think you (not Johanna) would be capable of winning the Hunger Games?

Yes!!! I would totally win!
hahah not really prob just run and hide

Hi Jena, If you could have written music for any movie you have already starred in, which would it have been? And would you have preferred writing the score or just a single song?

Gosh we would love to write something for the new Mockingjay films!!

Jena Malone Posts A Johanna Selfie to Her Instagram

Jena Malone posted this self-portrait from the Catching Fire set to her instagram yesterday with the caption:

Johanna Mason self portrait in the bathroom of my trailer. On the set of Catching Fire. So excited for the next two installments. When the world turns completely upside down :)

We're excited too, Jena!

Jena Malone Fangirls Over 'Catching Fire' As Much As We Do!

Concept sketch of Johanna Mason's chariot costume in Catching Fire

Jena Malone recently spoke with Jarett Wiesleman of BuzzFeed about the release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on Blu-Ray and DVD on March 7th. “Can I just fangirl out for a second?”she asked before talking about the Blu-ray as though she were one of its many admirers as opposed to one of its stars. “There is so much behind-the-scenes footage. We had so much fun on Catching Fire that I’m just excited to sit down and watch.”

Buzzfeed also has an exclusive behind the scenes Catching Fire clip all about Johanna's look. You can watch the video HERE.

“I learned so much about myself through playing Johanna. I knew I had strength as an actor, but Johanna taught me how incredibly strong I could be emotionally, that I could intimidate an entire room with just the energy I walked in with. You can really do some damage through how you carry yourself in life.”

And thanks to her 16-year-old sister, Malone is also aware of the powerful role movies play in shaping the next generation. “My sister really looks to cinema for a lot. Whether it’s purposely or subconsciously, it’s partly how she learns to be good at this or bad at that, how she learns about body issues, and how she learns to deal with friends,” she explained.

That’s why Malone wants every character she plays to have purpose, whether it’s within the film world or the real world. “At the end of the day, film has such an eternal shelf life — my movies will last longer than I’m going to last, so I might as well be making things I think are important, playing women I find inspiring, and playing characters that I would want my children to look up to.”

As a longtime fan of The Hunger Games book series, Malone chased the role of Johanna, recognizing that with its underlying themes of social equality, Catching Fire had much more on its agenda than pure, popcorn pleasures. And LGBT equality is a cause close to Malone’s heart since she grew up with two moms.

“The message of the film is amazing,” she continued. “As a society, we’re much further than where we were when I was younger and I love that people are so much more accepting and loving. Families can focus on just giving love now. That’s the most important thing. I think that’s an incredible time to be a part of.”

Now, after nearly two decades in this business, Malone is preparing her next big endeavor: releasing an album with her band The Shoe on June 3. “I think every young woman should constantly be wanting to surprise herself and constantly be pushing herself until the day she dies,” she said. “I will always be a storyteller, and I’m just excited there are now so many different ways I will get to tell my stories.”

Catching Fire is available March 7th!

'Catching Fire' Costume Designer Trish Summerville on her Favorite Look From the Film

The Costume Designers Guild Awards are coming up on Saturday, February 22nd (tomorrow!) and Jarrett Wieselman from Buzzfeed spoke with Trish Summerville (nominated for Excellence in Fantasy Film) about her favorite costume from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. 

Who: Trish Summerville
What: Johanna Mason’s District 7 Tribute
When: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’s chariot scene
Where: Custom-made

Why: Because Johanna has to make an immediate impact and isn’t given pages of dialogue to do so, Summerville had to ensure the character’s clothes spoke volumes. “She had to project a strong sexuality and she had to have this attitude because she’s a previous victor,” Summerville said. “She knows the game and she spends a lot of time in The Capitol, so she’s schooled and aware and knows the drill. She knows she’ll be paraded about, she knows people need to fear her, and be intimidated from the get-go.”

A task made infinitely more difficult since, in this scene, Johanna had to represent lumber, District 7’s chief industry. “Whenever you hear, ‘Dress someone like a tree,’ you think of a school play,” Summerville said, laughing. “I wanted her to be more like a streamlined, threatening warrior. That’s why I did her in a bodysuit and not a dress because she doesn’t have a feminine soft quality.”

Johanna's chariot costume is currently on display at the FIDM Museum in Los Angeles. Photo by Joe Kucharski/Tyranny of StyleTo create the killer couture (which is only seen from the waist up in the final film), Summerville incorporated pieces of actual bark into a tightly constructed leather corset, which was accented with three-dimensional green paint. That was paired with Eddie Borgo bracelets that resembled thorns, and Alexander McQueen boots that had vine detailing down the heel. “All of those pieces worked so well together,” she recalled. “Johanna’s dramatic and, in her mind, thinks she’s the tribute who stands out the most in that moment.”

Wiseman talks to 16 other nominated costume designers from tv and movies in his article HERE.

The 15th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, February 22nd, 2014 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

You can see Johanna's costume on display at The Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibit at the FIDM Museum in Los Angeles through April 26th.

Jena Malone on Johanna Mason & 'Catching Fire' in EW

Jena Malone is featured in this week's Entertainment Weekly. Check out why she almost quit acting and how she feels about her Catching Fire alter-ego, Johanna Mason.

From EW:

Of all the terrifying things in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - the jabberjays, the monkey mutts, Stanley Tucci's maniacal game-show-host grin - none are a match for Jena Malone. From the moment she steps on screen, defiantly stripping down in an elevator, the 29-year-old actress brings a feral intensity to Johanna Mason, a former victor dragged back into another death match alongside hero Katniss Everdeen.

"Once Jena auditioned, it was over," says franchise producer Nina Jacobson. "Jena has this quality where you don't want to be enemies with her, but at the same time you couldn't ask for anybody more fierce on your side." Her performance throbs with aggression. "Jena," says director Francis Lawrence, "was born to play somebody like Johanna."

Thanks to Catching Fire, Malone is finally enjoying a spotlight that's eluded her for close to two decades. She made her moving debut in 1996's Bastard Out of Carolina and has been a reliable supporting player ever since. In films like Stepmom, Donnie Darko, and Into The Wild, she showed a raw vulnerability at once deep and slightly dangerous. When Zack Snyder cast her in 2011's Sucker Punch, she seemed poised to break into more mainstream work. But the splashy girl-power flick flopped hard, and Malone's phone again went silent. "I was so primed for more, and then there were no parts," she says. " I was going to quit acting."

Instead of walking away for good, she took camping trips to Big Sur. And she threw herself into photography and her two-person electro-folk band The Shoe (with Lem Jay Ignacio), jerry-rigging an elaborate instrument out of an old trunk. "We used to just go and play on street corners with my generator," she says. "It's all just freestyle-based like Townes Van Zant or Tom Waits."

Malone had mostly give up reading scripts when she was approached about playing a ruthless Kentucky girl in the Kevin Costner TV miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. "She was like the Lady Macbeth of the West," Malone says of her character. "And I thought, 'Huh, I feel like I can really get into this [character's] physical body.' I think it was Hatfields that got me Catching Fire because I'd never played such an evil, feisty girl before. I've played dark girls with problems, bit most of them were innocent to their own destructive patterns." It's that lack of innocence that makes her Johanna Mason so wonderfully ferocious. And the actress is thrilled to have the chance to inspire Catching Fire's teenage-girl fan base to embrace their own power. "Why do I want to model fearlessness for? It's 14-15 year old girls. They're the true revolutionaries."

In it's $158.1 million opening weekend alone, Catching Fire made more than Malone's past 10 years' worth of movies. (The film has since earned $572.8 million worldwide.) She is well aware of the gift of exposure. "I could make the most incredible cake in the world, but if only my friends eat it, only my friends are going to know I'm a good baker," she says. "So hell, yes, this is a giant, massive moment." She's hoping the attention might jump-start a biopic of writer Carson McCullers: she's long been attached to star in the project, but it ha struggled to find financing. Meanwhile, on Dec. 2 she gratefully reported to the set of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

"I love this character. I would play her in an after school special."

VIDEO: Jena Malone on Chelsea Lately & LIVE! With Kelly and Michael

Jena Malone stopped by Chelsea Lately and LIVE! With Kelly and Michael on 11/27, and recounted maintaining her modesty while stripping in a public elevator for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire:

Beautiful Jena Malone photos from Hunger Magazine

Hunger Magazine, a fashion publication, will feature these gorgeous photos of Jena Malone (Johanna Mason) in their upcoming autumn/winter issue. We assume the magazine name is simply a coincidence. ;)

via Streeters.

Jena on Johanna from EW

When we first meet Johanna Mason, a ferocious, ax-wielding victor from District 7, it's on an elevator with Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta. She stares down the trio and proceeds to strip naked. "It's one of the best introductions to a character ever," says 28-year-old actress Jena Malone (Donnie Darko). "I had to learn how to do a striptease in four seconds."

For Malone, Johanna defies expectations for women in genre films. "She's not just another badass sexy female," she says. "Her sexuality is a weapon. Her humor is a weapon. They're part of her process of coping with the fact that she killed all her friends in her own Hunger Games." Malone can't shake one particular scene in which her entire body is drenched in blood. "I felt like this gladiator," she says. "The cameras would cut and I would still have this crazy energy surging through me. Johanna took over."


From EW's October 11 "Catching Fire" special issue.

Victors Revealed on The Hunger Games Explorer: Johanna

Remember who the enemy is....

Early reveal! We thought the reveal was supposed to be at NOON today, but it looks like Johanna has arrived early to The Hunger Games Explorer banner.

Jena Malone in LadyGunn Magazine

All photos by Shelby Duncan

Jena Malone has a beautiful feature in the latest LADYGUNN Magazine. She talks about her acting career and gives us some insight into her method, plus she talks about her audition for Catching Fire, "I blew them out of the water." The gorgeous photographs are by Shelby Duncan

LG: Congrats on THE HUNGER GAMES, by the way.

Jena: Thank you! Can’t comment on it yet, but I’m allowed to say how excited I am to be working on it. It’s a fucking dream! My little sister recommended I read it like two years ago and now she is dying.

LG: Nowadays some girls are instant celebrities, whether they deserve it or not, because they played the “Hollywood” game.

Jena: Seriously, you get one film, you hire a publicist and a stylist, all of that, and instantly you look like a celebrity. Where is your voice? Where is your point of view? That’s what made Julia Roberts so interesting when she was younger. And people like Madonna. That’s what makes Meryl Streep interesting every single time she walks out the door. She has a point of view. These other women buy their point of view from stylists or fashion people or agents. But they make far more money than I do. They are getting job offers that I could only dream of. There are some aspects where I wish someone would have just told me when I was a hot-headed 17-year-old, I could have just played the game a little straighter and I would have been able to have more doors open now.

LG: Well, THE HUNGER GAMES, c’mon, that’s a pretty big coup.

Jena: That’s the funny thing, the only reason I got this is because I blew them out of the water in the audition. It wasn’t because I played the game right and wore the sexy skirt, it was because I went in there and really auditioned and they actually had a casting director that wanted to cast real actors. That is not always the case.

LG: Especially in such a large franchise.

Jena: Right, I often see a lot of the younger actors who are like, “What should I do?” Honestly, it’s hard either way. It’s hard to be yourself and it’s hard not to be yourself. Both have a means of making you feel insecure and not sturdy in your job. It’s such a delicate thing. You’ve got to play the game a little bit. Even that’s a stylistic choice, even that’s a persona. It’s all a guise, a dream within a dream, so what’s really the truth of it? It’s far deeper inside, not on the outside. I think that’s what I am learning now. How to appreciate the material aspects that basically form that language of Hollywood without depreciating my internal aspects. 

 

Read the rest of this great article at Ladygunn

Thanks to TheHob.org for the tip!

VIDEO: Jena Malone on Her Nude Scene in 'CatchingFire'

HitFix spoke with Jena Malone at Comic Con about her role as Johanna Mason in Catching Fire. On the famous Johanna elevator nude scene, Malone wouldn't elaborate too much, but said that Francis Lawrence and his writers for this sequel have integrated in Suzanne Collins' descriptions of that passage.

"We're quite faithful to the adaptation," Malone said, acknowledging the scene.

As for the cast, Malone was excited by each addition as they were announced. "Every day, I'm thinking This is so incredible," she daid. "[Every character] has their own flavors and weapons and things, it's really cool."

Johanna's Capitol Portrait Dress Designer Discovered

We just discovered that the gorgeous dress from Johanna Mason's Official Capitol Portrait was designed by Dutch designer Jan Taminiau. The dress is from Taminiau's appropriately named F/W 2011 Collection, Nature Extends.  It shouldn't surprise you to find out Lady Gaga has worn Taminiau's designs many times. Gaga seems to be a big inspiration for Catching Fire costume designer Trish Summerville. 

Thanks to MyHungerGames.com for the info!