Jena Malone recalls battling nerves during kiss scene with Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko

Speaking in an interview, Malone, 41, reflected on Richard Kellys sci-fi psychological thriller, which follows Gyllenhaal as Donnie, a troubled high-school student who discovers the philosophy of time travel while falling in love with Gretchen Ross, played by Malone.

Recalling the kiss scene with Gyllenhaal, Malone said she experienced some nerves but viewed them as a natural part of an important and unfamiliar moment.

I think nerves are always an indicator that something is important, something is unknown and its something that you care about. So it felt really normal, she said. And Jake and I were far enough along in our friendship where we could sort of be like, All right, lets take a mint. It felt like a comfortable space to have nerves in, if that makes sense, according to People.

Malone said the role of Gretchen and the romantic scene felt more nuanced than other girlfriend role[s] she had previously been offered. Vulture described the kiss as one of the great high-school-movie kisses.

Usually we reserve those types of complex intimacy coordinations for adults, but trauma bonding is a real human animal instinct, she said, reflecting on how Donnie and Gretchens relationship intertwined love and trauma. When youre afraid and you need comfort, you reach for what feels safe.

I love with first kisses or the beginning of the growth of intimacy within teenagers or young people allowing them to have space where it doesnt just have to be romantic. We can reach for people for all sorts of reasons, and sometimes theyre not the best, and sometimes theyre great. Love is all-encompassing, and I love when we get to see all sides of it, without judgment, she explained.

For Malone, playing Gretchen also marked one of her first teen roles after years of being identified as a child actor.

Theres all these sort of doorways you enter of embodiment as an actor, where its like, I am a child, I am a best friend, I am a girlfriend, and then the doorway of, I am a wife. Its very traditional in a way, she told Vulture.

And so I think that I had felt a little repelled by the girlfriend role prior to Donnie Darko, because they never offered me the mud, the gray, the nuance. And I felt like this was the script. I felt aligned in how it portrayed teenage love, and so it was really easy for me to be like, Hell yes, according to People.

Donnie Darko starred Gyllenhaal and Malone alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Daveigh Chase, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore and Seth Rogen.

The film follows Donnie, a troubled 16-year-old who is guided by Frank, a mysterious figure in a rabbit costume, as he navigates an unstable parallel universe. Donnie is later diagnosed by doctors with paranoid schizophrenia, with Frank believed to be a daylight hallucination.

As the film approaches its 25th anniversary, writer-director Richard Kelly has also reflected on the challenges surrounding its original release.

Speaking to People in September 2026, Kelly said the team had a really hard time achieving distribution after the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2001 before its theatrical release in October that year.

I dont wanna sugarcoat it. It was really pretty brutal, Kelly said.

Kelly, who was 25 when he made the film, credited Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas as two guardian angels who helped convince New Market Films, which had distributed Memento to great success, to give Donnie Darko a tiny theatrical release.

I breathed a sigh of relief that we got to 50 screens, that the movie didnt get sent straight to home video, because that was a time before streaming where if a movie went straight to home video, it would not have been reviewed in the big newspapers, he explained.

Reflecting on the films eventual status as a cult classic, Kelly said he never wouldve thought that we wouldve gotten to this point.

Because theres just so much continued enthusiasm for the movie, it puts a fire inside of me to try and live up to it, he shared, to try and make sure that anything I do moving forward is hopefully at the same level or close to or at the same level of ambition and complexity and longevity, according to People. (ANI)