If you haven’t yet seen Catching Fire, the sequel to the Hunger Games, you will be happy to know that there is a fresh new face on screen. Jena Malone has joined the cast as the fierce, previous Hunger Games victor, Johanna Mason.

Malone’s character’s main trait is her anger, and Malone said, while trying to prepare for the part, that it almost killed her.

“When you first meet her, she’s got enemy written all over her,” Malone said. “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 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.”

Malone also spoke about the film during a recent interview. “It’s kind of like winning the lottery as an actor,” she said. “I mean, getting to join such an incredible franchise with an amazing book series, an amazing fan base, an amazing cast and you know, having a new director come on board so you don’t feel like you have to kind of fit in to something that’s already been created.”

So excited for our last premiere night for catching fire in NYC!! I little nervous I'm gonna freeze though

— Jena Malone (@MaloneJena) November 20, 2013

Even though she is a “newbie” on the set, she says the whole cast has become like family to her and that she enjoys getting to work with such an amazing group of people.

“We couldn’t do it with any better people too. It’s such an amazing — like we’ve become such a family unit, you know? It’s just nice that we get to have like, you know, Christmases together and we’re going back at, you know, going to go film at the end of the month, like we’re just like keeping at it and it’s so nice that we all, you know, we still really love each other.”

Catching Fire has already topped the box office with $161.1 million domestically and over $300 million worldwide. It is the 4th highest grossing movie of all time.

Image via Twitter