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Jennifer Connelly finds role at home
Courier-Post Online
December 28, 2003
Jennifer Connelly used to live alone with her 6-year-old son in a cramped apartment in New York. That was before A Beautiful Mind made her a movie star, netted her an Oscar and led to her acquaintance with co-star Paul Bettany, who has since become her husband and the father of her second child.
Now, Connelly and company live in a spacious townhouse.
"The thing is that we have no furniture, so we're living in the same amount of space," she notes.
"We have no couches, no place to sit, nothing. Basically, all the other rooms are grand corridors, things we just walk through. They're dance studios, skateboarding rinks."
She lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "When people come to our new place, they ask, 'Where's your furniture? This is how you live?' "
Home is home
But home is home. And after making House of Sand and Fog, Connelly says she'll never take the concept of domestic stability for granted again.
"When I came out of the movie, I was shaken," she admits. "It's so jarring and disturbing and tragic. You can sort of see the tragedy coming before it gets there and you have a sense of dread and then . . .
"I walked out of it and I thought, 'I just want to go to my kids. I just want to go be with my family.' I'm so blessed. I can't believe I get so worked up about petty things sometimes."
House of Sand and Fog is not a Hollywood romp. The film, based on a best-seller by Andre Dubus III, is a harrowing look at the dark side of the immigrant experience.
Evicted form home
Connelly stars as Kathy Nicolo, a recovering alcoholic who gets evicted from her house in the California hills after failing to pay a $500 tax bill. Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley), a former colonel in the Iranian military, snaps up the property from the city at a fraction of what it's worth.
Behrani wants to fix the seaside home and re-sell it for a profit. For him, the home represents a way to keep his family afloat financially. When Behrani refuses to vacate the house, things begin escalating. Kathy finds an ally in a married policeman (Ron Eldard), who becomes obsessed with helping her get back the house.
Connelly, 33, admits playing a character rife with contradictions was a challenge for her.
"It felt a bit scary to play Kathy because I thought to myself, 'Oh, God! I'm not liking her behavior right now.' But I don't always like my own behavior. I haven't known anyone who's perfect all the time."
As the story advances, Kathy falls off the wagon and begins skipping work. Her spiral downward seems inevitable.
Director Vadim Perelman says Connelly never flinched from bringing the harsher aspects of Kathy's personality to life. "I commend Jennifer on her braveness, because the real compulsion for a star is to sanctify their characters. But Jennifer was brave enough to say, 'I don't need the audience to love me. I don't need to shill for affection.' "
Connelly has been renowned for her beauty since she made her film debut in Once Upon a Time in America. She was 11 when she played the Elizabeth McGovern character, a mobster's moll, as a young girl.
Connelly can't remember exactly how she came to be a child actor, but it's a life she would not consider for her children.
"I wouldn't want them to start working as kids," she says. "It's too much pressure. I mean, I'm here and I'm doing all right, but it's difficult. You have to function as an adult and be responsible when you should just be out messing around and trying different things and cutting your hair and being an idiot."
When independent writer-director Darren Aronofsky offered her a role in Requiem for a Dream as a drug addict who turns to prostitution to support her habit, she jumped at the chance to play a character unlike any other on her resume.
"By then," says the actress, "I had the focus. I had made conscious choices to just try and do movies that I wouldn't be embarrassed by, that reflected my interest."
It was A Beautiful Mind, though, which proved to have the most impact on her career and her life. She won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and an Oscar as best supporting actress for her role as the real-life wife of John Forbes Nash Jr. (played by Russell Crowe), a man who suffered from mental illness but eventually went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1994.
On the set, Connelly met Bettany, who had a small role as Nash's imaginary college roommate. Connelly was involved with actor Josh Charles at the time, but found herself increasingly drawn to Bettany.
"It was a telephone relationship for a long time," says Connelly. "I remember thinking, 'Wow! I really like this guy, but I'm in this other relationship.' You don't leave one person for another person and I told Paul, 'That's just the way it is.'
"But Paul was curious and he kept on calling me. Basically, it translated into about a year of me sorting that other relationship out and being really determined not to let one influence the other. I didn't call Paul back for the longest time. But it all worked out in the end."
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