A 30 year American saga in the making, Kevin Costner brings a sprawling depiction of the American West told through slices of life juxtaposed by the migration into uncharted territory. Offscreen Central was lucky enough to speak to actress Jena Malone about the importance of female voices during this era of history, the generational trauma women carry, and collaborating with Kevin Costner to find the character of Ellen/Lucy.

Jillian Chilingerian: What stands out to me is its uniqueness with women in this era, because we don’t see that even in like our history books, or this genre as a Western, it’s not talked about. I love that women have an active role in this and you, especially as Lucy and Ellen. So first I want to talk about the importance of embodying the women of this era, and giving them a voice because your part is so resilient and so strong.
Jena Malone: I mean, it’s a good question. It’s so funny when we look back at history, the words show you the problem in itself, his story, there’s been so many voices that have not necessarily been silenced, because they lived their lives and lived them fully, that they can have not been sung, that really have not been told. In some ways, being an actor these days is this embodiment journey, because we know enough about epigenetics to know that we are carrying our great, great grandmother’s trauma and her joys and experiences, and yet we don’t fully know them. And in these embodiment journeys, you’re able to articulate things that have not been articulated, and it’s a healing experience. It is even better when the writing stands up to the work of that, I can only push so much of my healing agenda as an actor, but when the work speaks for that, it just allows an even bigger, deeper dive, and there are certain things that you didn’t think about like child care back in the old west. As a mom, I like dealing with these funny modern conundrums as a solo parent of where do I put my kid, I gotta go do this thing and, and I love that it deals with those things. In some ways, her story has a very modern domestic, l it’s making dinner, getting the babysitter there on time getting your husband ready on time. I never thought of those things happening at that time so it was nice to see them differently.

Jillian Chilingerian: Sometimes when we go back to the past, it’s like, oh, that was so long ago, but what you’re saying, the basics of childcare, and every time I see children, or animals in film, where it’s not modern day, I’m like, How are we taking care of like, I get stressed out. She’s with her young child and wants to give them a better life. That is such an apparent theme within this of women wanting to give their children in the future a better life because they don’t know where they’re going.
Jena Malone: As a mom that story never stops wanting to be expressed out of your body, your sweat, your tears, your voice, but it’s the past is not dead. The past lives in us. It’s such an important thing to be able to know where we’ve been to honor those stories and to learn from them. Because it’s the same thing that we’re going through right now. It just looks a tiny bit different.

Jillian Chilingerian: With Lucy/Ellen, she’s carrying this trauma and she thinks that she has found this with her husband and child until it’s yanked and she’s back into the position she wants to escape. How was it to play this character who has this trauma is searching for something better and always has the protective nature of being a mom?
Jena Malone: What’s an amazing part of the story is that you only get to see so much of everyone’s lives, but the little bit that you do kind of speaks to the volume of the mountain that they were climbing before. Her mountain which she has been climbing since probably the second she was born, is extreme, you don’t hear about those stories of female vigilantes who aren’t like gunslingers, like masked heroes. This is a woman who wants to be a good mother and provide a good life. That protection of life has led her on this vigilante path of nothing will stand in my way, until I’m able to just live the life that I see fit, a place that I can thrive in. It doesn’t always have to be such lofty ideals, like, sometimes we are just fighting for the sanctity of our own homes.

Jillian Chilingerian: That moment of, Oh, I just want to breathe, but like, I can’t breathe, because you don’t know what’s going to happen. She’s also in a world where her husband, Walter isn’t aware of where she’s come from, or who she is. In that cabin, she’s showing that she’s always up and standing for herself.
Jena Malone: When you’re not given power, and you were born in a female body, the first language you learn is deception because you’re never given the tools of the house, you’re not even allowed to be in it so it’s all an illusion. It is sad that maybe a lot of the love stories that were written at that time, and a lot of the paths of passion and creativity and, paths towards independence as a woman were written in the name of deception.

Jillian Chilingerian: Working with Kevin, as an actor, director, and writer, like this character of Ellen/Lucy, did you that right on the page? Was that what you’re envisioning or what he’s envisioning? Like? What is that collaboration? From the moment you see her, you automatically get who she is. As you are mentioning these little slices of life we get to see and this setting, it’s like, I’m so invested in everyone, even though I don’t know their full story.
Jena Malone: It was different because I knew that Kevin had this story in his brain for 30 years. I felt like there was an honoring space of instead of me coming up with all of these ideas, I was sort of like, I want to hear everything that you know about this character already. I wanted to hear what his thoughts, where did she come from? It wasn’t a new story that he just created a year ago. He sent me emails and texts that were paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs. This is the work that I wanted and from there, I got to craft little things. There was a lot of detail work that he’s such a collaborative person. There are these really interesting photos of women at that time that have short hair and it was a thing that they did, you would sell some of the hair and whatever. She’s a vigilante, she would have sold the hair straight away. I wanted her to have this short hair and he was like, I hadn’t ever thought about that in that world in that way. We didn’t end up doing it, but it was just so nice, he has such a depth of knowledge about the story and the characters. It’s such a love of theirs, that you can make a million choices, and he’ll also know which ones will work for the story and which ones won’t, and not all directors have that kind of like, ability to navigate so many different characters at the same time and still be and to know the purpose of each one.

Jillian Chilingerian: Well thank you so much for this and I am so glad that we were able to have this conversation about women.
Jena Malone: This has been the best interview yet, you’re so smart and wonderful. Thank you so much for really bringing it, I so appreciate it

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is currently in theaters.
You can read our review of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 here.