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Jennifer Connelly’s Greener Pastures
by Sharmini R.
ETC Magazine
June 2003
Her unassuming disposition makes her the least suspecting candidate for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Her long, straight nearly black hair and un-mistakenly patrician features have called for comparisons with Elizabeth Taylor, but yet this extremely private New Yorker remains unaffected.
Jennifer Connelly has indeed emerged in the throes of the bright lights of Hollywood an unsuspecting winner; some say she snuck up on her peers when they least expected it. She bared the intensity of her talent in A Beautiful Mind next to Russell Crowe and remained unforgettably visible; she proved that she’s about as good as they get. Part of her appeal is that she looks less like an actress; her intriguing sense of privacy makes it increasingly clear that Connelly is not your average actress.
THE HULK BECKONS
Before the dust could settle on her win, she chose to follow A Beautiful Mind by starring in The Hulk because “this is a five character family psychodrama.” A standard comic book fare, The Hulk would indeed hold very little interest for Connelly if it wasn’t for the fact that it was to be directed by Ang Lee of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame. His involvement in itself was a whole other proposition. “Ang brought such yricism to those movies,” she explains. “I just wanted to be around him.” And when he started talking Greek tragedy and telling her of his walks through the Californian dessert in search of rocks with just the right texture for Hulk to crush, she was hooked. Connelly had signed on before the Oscar nominations, therefore Lee and Universal Studios banked on a good deal. Connelly, says Lee, was always his first choice. “Her intensity appealed to me. And she’s gorgeous to look at. You can’t ask much more than that.”
Her biggest regret if at all there were any was having to speak to a cardboard- cut out Hulk head on a stick. Like most superheroes, the Hulk had a human alter ego: Bruce Banner played by Eric Bana. Whenever he transformed into his superhero self, a computer animated Hulk takes over the scene. The Hulk head had to be positioned at it’s original height to enable Connelly to achieve her ‘eye-lines.’ “ I am looking at pieces of pink tape on the cut out head,” she says with a grin. “There’s nothing there ! I’ve never done that before – it’s a little humiliating.” says the green – eyed beauty.
She goes on to prove that she isn’t your average actress by getting involved in the movie full – on. Almost as soon as she read the script for The Hulk, she proposed changes for her character Betty Ross, who is a scientist who works in the same university lab as Bruce Banner. Her character who has issues with her army general father, did anything but overwhelm Connelly so she worked closely with the movie’s screenwriter James Shamus to create nuances in her character, inspired by the poet Anne Carson. “ The material of the movie is so colourful but flat, boxed in, cut off from anything real,” explains Connelly, who has been said to have done an audition so intense before, she threw a chair across he room. “And then in it is this character who’s trying to find something human, and scared, trying to sort out her past and her memories.”
It is no wonder that the character appealed to her as Connelly is well known for taking on unfortunate roles, as she lets herself think they were more than they were.
BIG BROTHER CROWE
Connelly has the muscle to make her characters her own, in which she got some assistance from her A Beautiful Mind co-star, Russell Crowe. “He asks a lot of questions,” Connelly observes of the infamously difficult to work with Russell Crowe. “and he really applies himself. He puts a lot into what he does.” It is evident that she too has adapted this style to her characters since.
Together, Connelly says, she and Crowe challenged the script at every turn, always struggling to establish the Nashe’s relationship as profoundly as they could, which often meant parring down the speeches, “Like toward the end of the movie there’s a scene where we wonder if she’s left him,” Connelly recalls, “After the whole baby-in-the-bathtub business. The scene in the bedroom where I am kneeling in front of him was originally a long spiel. It just didn’t seem appropriate at the time (her to be saying) saying, “We have to get out of your mind, and what we need to do is re – introduce you to the physical world”. It seemed more appropriate to do that through touch rather than dialogue.”
It is obvious that Connelly loves what she does and wouldn’t have it any other way. It is her passion for the art form that drives her to excel. “Acting is great. When it works it is so fulfilling,” she muses. “You do the research and work with other talented people who are creative and passionate and use all your faculties. The ability to express yourself completely is the most wonderful feeling in the world. Each film is a chapter in my life wherein I learn so much more about myself. “I enjoy being able to completely allow myself to be consumed by a role, and really grow in the process, once you’ve done that, it’s hard to go back working on things you don’t care about.
LOVE MATE
Rumour had that Jennifer and Crowe shared an off screen romance to which she has a terse and emphatic response. “ I have a boyfriend,” she declares. “ I was not on the market.” At the time of the film, that would have been Josh Charles, a comic actor from Dead Poets Society and Sports Night. But she had captured the heart of another actor on the set of A Beautiful Mind - Paul Bettany, who plays Nash’s imaginary friend. “ He is a remarkable person.” She says. “Just really good, kind, beautiful person and I am really happy to be spending time with him right now.”
She admits that he has got a really cute accent and she laughs when she thinks of it. “He makes everything sound so much fancier when he says it than when I say it. Really annoying.” Connelly is expecting their child sometime later this year.
Jennifer maintains a level head when it comes to relationships. Before Bettany and Charles, she was romantically linked to photographer David Dugan in the mid 90’s. In 1997, Jennifer and Dugan had a son, whom they named Kai. “Kai” means ocean in Hawaiian, a spill-over from days when Dugan lived in Hawaii.
“He came out looking so not like a Liam or whatever else we’d thought of.” Says Connelly.
“He was so dark and exquisite and almond-eye that those names didn’t work. So we put a few names in a bag, and I pulled out Kai four times in a row.” Dugan and Connelly raise Kai together, which works best when Connelly is back home at her apartment in lower Manhattan. Her decision not to marry Dugan was, she bristles, “kind of deeply personal.” But she does allow that “ if I got married I would rather not get divorced. And I didn’t arrive at that place where I felt that was the choice.”
Connelly is so besotted by Kai and pays tribute saying “I don’t think I would be doing this quality of work if it hadn’t been for my son. He’s changed me. He’s helped me to understand myself and find my place in the world.”
She sure has found her place in the world what with a blooming acting career, a son and another go at motherhood. “ I am so ridiculously happy right now. I always had at least one corner of my life that wasn’t working and was causing me pain. And I don’t really feel that now. Everything feels good.”
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