Jena Malone was a slap target for one Stepmom viewer.
New York Encounter
A woman failed to separate the then-14-year-old child star from her alter ego, Anna Harrison, the daughter of cancer-stricken Jackie Harrison (Susan Sarandon), and Luke Harrison (Ed Harris), who rejects her dad’s new fiancée, Isabel Kelly (Julia Roberts), in the 1998 film.
Jena, 41, recalled to People, “I remember there was one bad fan experience I had on a subway, and it was right after Stepmom came out, which is another one that I feel like really people hold dear to their hearts.”
“I was going to school in New York at the time, and some woman just looked at me across from on the subway, and she’s like, ‘Were you that little girl in Stepmom?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ She’s like, ‘I just wanted to slap you.'”
The star remembered the encounter that set her aback.
Jena added, “I wasn’t the best socially adapted human, so that was an interesting one. And I was like, If I’m alone in public, maybe I should be like, ‘No, that’s not me,’ just in case.”
But the entertainer would have felt “a little bad for lying.”
Her Son Wanting Honesty
However, The Hunger Games alum and her ex-fiancé Ethan DeLorenzo’s nine-year-old son, Ode Mountain, picks up his mom when she does lie to fans if they recognize her from a project.
Jena shared, “Sometimes I just don’t feel like saying, ‘Yes.’ Sometimes I feel protective in front of my son, but then he’ll be like, ‘Did you just lie? You just lied to them mom. Go back and tell them that you were that person.'”
“He does not like it at all. And sometimes he’ll answer for me, ‘Yes, she is. Would you like an autograph?’ He’s like, ‘Here she is. Let’s all line up.’ It’s so funny.”
Getting Engaged
In February, Jena got engaged to her “soulmate,” actor Jack Buckley, which she hailed as a “dream come true.”
She wrote on Instagram, “It was always you. Even in those long, dark spaces of my youth. Where I learned to hold my own heart. You were always there Breathing life into these tiny glimmers of a child’s heart….Love….. Soulmate……Marriage”
“You are a dream come true Jack.”
Jack sought permission from the Pride and Prejudice cast members’ two moms, her sister, and Ode to propose to Jena.
She added, “My soulmate asked me to marry him. First, he asked those who have protected and cared for my heart for so long.”
“Both of my Moms, my Sister, my Son … and with every lifetime, every moment I have in front of me I said yes. @jacktbuckley I love you forever!!!”