Katniss Everdeen might have been “The Girl on Fire,” but this elevator scene got pretty hot.
“Hunger Games” star Jena Malone revealed Monday that she and Jennifer Lawrence were forced to film a scene for the film’s sequel, “Catching Fire,” separately due to Lawrence, 33, feeling under the weather.
“The scenes that are fun are never fun to do — Jen was sick that day, so I ended up doing it without Jen, and so there wasn’t a lot of people in the elevator,” Malone, 38, told Variety during the premiere of “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”
“So I think we were just winging it and trying to get as much as we could get, because it was [shot] in a real hotel,” the “Donnie Darko” actress added. “That’s the magic of filmmaking, is you only need a few seconds to really create something that lasts.”
In the memorable scene, Johanna Mason (Malone) takes the elevator with Everdeen (Lawrence), Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), and boldly declares that her “stylist is such an idiot” as she begins to strip naked.
“District 7, lumber, trees. I’d love to put my ax on her face. So what do you think, now that the whole world wants to sleep with you,” Mason adds, after asking Mellark to unzip her dress.
Before sauntering off the elevator, she quips: “Thanks, let’s do it again sometime.”
Malone continued to portray the brash character in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” (2014) and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” (2015).
!["So I think we were just winging it and trying to get as much as we could get, because it was [shot] in a real hotel," the "Donnie Darko" actress added. "That's the magic of filmmaking, is you only need a few seconds to really create something that lasts."](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/NYPICHPDPICT000072361225.jpg?quality=75&strip=all)
According to Malone, she is excited to see the prequel film with “fresh eyes” since she never read the book the upcoming movie is based on.
“I’m gonna go in with fresh eyes and see what they have to say,” Malone explained to People on Monday. “‘The Hunger Games’ is obviously a very intense, wildly heavy thing — I mean, we use the genre of fantasy to explore the things that are very hard for us to explore in our own life.”
The Golden Globe nominee stated that the action flick seems to mirror the world we live in.
“But really, if you look at our reality right now, there’s a lot of mirroring,” the “Sucker Punch” star said. “So I think it’s important to see where this younger generation is gonna take this film, and push it and run with it, and hopefully change the world.”
Earlier this year, Malone revealed that she was sexually assaulted while filming the second part of “Mockingjay” by someone who worked on the project.
“This photo was taken right after I wrapped mocking Jay part two and I had to say goodbye to everyone on set,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “We were shooting in a beautiful estate in the countryside of France and I asked the driver to let me out in this field so I could cry and capture this moment.”
At the time, Malone was reportedly going through a “bad” breakup and dealing with the residual trauma of being assaulted.
“I was so full of gratitude for this project, the people I became close with and this amazing part I got to play,” she continued. “A swirling mix of emotions im only now just learning to sort thru [sic]. I wish it wasn’t tied to such a traumatic event for me but that is the real wildness of life I guess.”
The star, who has never revealed the name of her assailant, said that she “worked very hard to heal and learn thru [sic] restorative justice” and “how to make peace with the person who violated me and make peace with myself.”
“Lots of love to you survivors out there. The process is so slow and non-linear. I want to say im here for anyone who needs to talk or vent or open uncommunicated spaces within themselves,” she concluded. “Please dm me if you need a safe space to be heard.”
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” is set to hit theaters on Nov. 17.