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Jennifer Connelly Brings Down the House
By Steve Baltin
Venice
November 2003
Jennifer Connelly has always had star power. From the moment she made her debut at the age of 14 as the younger version of Elizabeth McGovern's character in Sergio Leone's epic, Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Connelly could command a screen. And when the New York native held her own with the charismatic David Bowie in Jim Henson's elaborate fantasy, Labyrinth (1986), it became evident Connelly was something special.
She continued to aware the faith of those early believers with strong performances in small movies: as 15-year-old Natalie Becker in the wistful and smart Seven Minutes in Heaven (1985); and Gabriella in the 1988 quirky and endearing gem Some Girls , a romantic fable in which she starred opposite a young Patrick Dempsey.
By the time she appeared with Don Johnson and Virginia Madsen in the Dennis Hopper-directed The Hot Spot (1990), the dark-haired Connelly's luminous beauty and intoxicating screen presence were undeniable.
And more often than not, during the '90s she was cast based on that assumption. Connelly's noteworthy roles include the 1998 cult sci-fi hit Dark City with William Hurt, John Singleton's Higher Learning (1995), and a star-making turn in Lee Tamahori's critically acclaimed Mulholland Falls (1996) with Nick Nolte and John Malkovich. In the stylish, '50s-influenced noir thriller, Connelly flawlessly recalled the classic movie starlets of yesteryear. In 1997 she co-starred in Inventing the Abbotts with Liv Tyler, Joaquin Phoenix, and Billy Crudup, with whom she would later work in Waking the Dead .
Like we said, Jennifer Connelly has always had star power. Still, anyone willing to wager that Connelly would become one of Hollywood's A-list actresses in the first few years of the 21 st century would've gotten very good odds in their favor.
It's not that Connelly, who was born December 12, 1970 in the Catskill Mountains, didn't have the talent to stand alongside Nicole and Julia. Even in such light-weight fare as 1991's Career Opportunities , an incidental John Hughes-penned romp in which Connelly and Frank Whaley are trapped in a department store overnight, Connelly displayed the mix of vulnerability and strong-mindedness that would later become her trademark.
However, there did seem to be a question as to whether acting could hold enough interest for the bright Connelly, who attended Yale for two years before transferring to Stanford, where she spent another year.
Connelly admits she had the same questions. The turning point: she says it was prior to 2000's Waking the Dead , the poignant Keith Gordon-directed vehicle in which the memory of Connelly's Sarah Williams haunts aspiring politician Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup).
A superb love story notable for Gordon's deft touch and the magnificent performances of Connelly and Crudup as young lovers torn between their overwhelming passion for each other and their strong beliefs and political convictions, Waking the Dead might've gone on to be just another woefully overlooked film if not for the footnote it now seems destined to hold.
That was the film that began a streak of memorable performances for Connelly that elevated her into the elite of Hollywood actresses.
That same year saw her startling Independent Spirit Award-nominated turn as drug-addicted Marion Silver in Darren Aronofsky's mind-and-spirit-ravaging Requiem for a Dream , as well as a brief, but pivotal, appearance as Ruth Klingman, Jackson Pollock's mistress, in Ed Harris' Oscar-winning Pollock .
Her status as Hollywood's newest leading lady was cemented with Ron Howard's 2001 film A Beautiful Mind . As Alicia Larde Nash, the captivating Connelly won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
She followed that up with Ang Lee's 2003 summer blockbuster, Hulk . If a movie based on a comic book seemed like an odd choice for Connelly, who is becoming known as much for her discerning taste in scripts as her acting prowess, she imbued the film with grace and heart as scientist Betty Ross.
Despite the heavy attention focused on the film, and the over 100-million domestic gross, it's likely not the film Connelly will be remembered for in 2003.
At least not if she gets the Oscar nomination she so richly deserves for her powerful performance in the upcoming House of Sand and Fog . Directed by Vadim Perelman, who is making his feature film debut, House of Sand and Fog is, at times, a difficult film to watch about the intersecting dreams of two people struggling for something to hold on to.
Connelly stars as Kathy Nicolo, "a wounded bird" who is evicted mistakenly by the county, from the home her late father left her. Before the error can be rectified, Ben Kingsley's character buys the home for his family.
To the credit of Perelman, as well as his two leads, Connelly and Kingsley, the film effectively shows both points of view.
The struggle for the house becomes a metaphor for Connelly's increasingly desperate efforts to hold onto the one thing she has in her life and for Kingsley, a former Iranian general now working multiple jobs as he tries to reclaim the pride and honor he had in his native land. Kingsley's quietly devastating performance should earn him an Oscar nomination as well.
A second Oscar, or even a Best Actress nomination, would take Connelly to the pinnacle of Hollywood if she so desired. But you'd have more luck finding her in her native New York playing with her two kids and husband Paul Bettany (whom she met on the set of A Beautiful Mind and began dating several months after filming ended) than on a Hollywood red carpet.
The morning of or scheduled interview, Connelly is a couple hours late. When we do speak, she apologizes several times for the confusion. It's impossible to be angry at Connelly as she explains why she missed the first scheduled time. The day before, she was frantically helping her son Kai construct his first homemade Halloween costume and she forgot to check her fax machine, which she keeps out of sight in a closet, for the call time.
Despite being in-demand as both a Hollywood superstar and busy new mom (her child with Bettany was born this past August), the generous Connelly spoke with Venice about her recent work, travel, and how music plays a part in every role she takes on.
Venice: How was your Halloween?
Jennifer Connelly: It was good. It was the first time Kai decided he wanted to do a homemade costume, which every year I've been egging him on, saying, "Don't you want to make something? Shouldn't we do something?" Two years in a row he was Red Power Ranger and the Red Ninja, so finally this year he said, "I've got an idea." He wanted to be the ghost of a knight who died on the battlefield. He made his own armor out of cardboard that he painted himself. It was really funny. He was very serious about the whole thing. He had the ghost makeup. All the houses were decorated and it was really fun. It had been three days in the making and conversations about it for weeks about what he should be. Then he had full-on makeup with white face and sort of hollowed out eyes and cheeks and blood and his costume actually had to be sewn on him, so we helped him.
Did you dress up as anything to take him trick or treating?
I didn't actually. I was dressed as a harassed mother. That was my costume this year. [ laughs ]
I know you spent a minute living on the west coast in the '90s, but you seem firmly entrenched in New York these days.
We just bought a house, which we're very excited about. It's great, with tons of kids everywhere. And the park is great; we play in the park and fly kites and go biking. It's a really nice place for kids I think. It's a little less full-on than Manhattan, which is fine. We still go into the city, like every other day, but it's nice to come home to. I love it here, just the people on the street. I love everyone thrown together and it's such a walking city, which is fantastic.
Congratulations on House of Sand and Fog . What attracted you to the film and to the part of Kathy?
Thank you. The movie itself, the script just sort of grabbed me. It's one of those things; it's hard to put your finger on when a script just works. You don't want to put it down and I was moved by it, just reading it on paper. So the story itself I really responded to. And the way the characters were drawn, so basically your allegiance is torn and it goes back and forth. I liked the fact there's no winner in the end; the movie doesn't pick a hero, it doesn't pick a winner, and everyone is culpable in this tragedy. But you understand, at the same time, both points of view. I thought that was interesting. It's difficult to pull off, to try to hold the viewpoints of a couple of protagonists, but it works, it's really interesting.
Part of the credit for that certainly has to go to Vadim. Tell us about working with him.
He did a great job adapting the novel (by Andre Dubus III) into a screenplay. It's painful, I think, when you have a novel that works really well to have to distill it into a screenplay. It's a really daunting task, I would imagine. And I think he did a good job preserving its fundamental elements. It still has the feeling of the novel. And he's really smart. He had a good idea of what he wanted to do. He also was open to listening to people around him: (cinematographer) Roger Deakins, who's so talented, and to Ben's ideas, and to my ideas. Not to say he always took everyone's ideas, but it's interesting that for a first-time director he was so open to seeing where he could get new information and new ideas from that could help support his own ideas. I thought he did that really well. And he's really interested in the performances and in his characters and supporting his actors, I found. He was just really respectful of everyone and tried to support everyone.
That comes through on the screen. It has the heart and sensibility of an indie film.
I did like that about it. On paper it is sort of a very small story. It takes a few people and it's basically about a struggle over a house on paper. It's one of those things that starts off very small and it touches on much larger things; it sort of echoes out. I liked that about it. It wasn't trying to say, " Oh, here's a movie about blah-blah-blah, and it's a big epic." But it extends and you feel like it's talking about things that reverberate.
Personally, it was really nice for me. I had just done the Hulk , which was a very different experience. I spent so much time doing effects shots or sort of a big shots that took a lot of time to set up. There was a lot of coverage on everything that we did in the Hulk because of the way Ang wanted to format the movie.
So on this it was much more pared down, and there's hardly any kind of sitting around in the trailer. Mostly you come to work, do a rehearsal, and then go out and just do scenes all day, which, for me, was great and really fun.
I know you're a big music fan. What did you listen to during the making of the film?
I listened a lot to this album called For the Birds , by the Frames, an Irish band. I listened to that a lot. And I listened to Radiohead. Those were the two big things. Mostly the Frames album though. I listen to a lot of music when I'm at work. Now with the advent of the iPod it's a lot easier. But I used to be the girl who came to work with an impossibly huge bag filled with CDs, 'cause, yeah, I love my music in the trailer. Plus, I did have Paul, who spent a lot of time with me at work. He would bring his guitar in, make fun of me, singing songs like, "Oh, my name is Jennifer and I take myself very seriously. I am Jennifer and I listen to depressing music." [ laughs ]
You'll have to get him to turn you onto some less depressing music.
We have very similar taste in music, which works well.
So what are the latest tunes you put in the iPod?
I haven't, because even though I love music I'm a complete moron when it comes to computers. I haven't bothered to do it, so I have an iPod that someone downloaded for me and I haven't updated it. The last CD I bought was this band called Notwist, which someone recommended to me. But I need some new music. I like Jeff Buckley a lot. Grace is one of my all-time favorite albums. Tom Waits I love. Closing Time is a great album. And The Boatman's Call , by Nick Cave, is great album.
I have to ask you about Waking the Dead because that's one of my favorite movies of all time.
It was a sweet movie, wasn't it? I just saw Keith when I was out in L.A last week. He's also one of the loveliest people that you'd ever want to meet. And that was one of the best experiences I've ever had making a movie. I cried when we wrapped. You sort of get the feeling, "Oh god, I'm so tired. When we wrap it'll be so nice, we'll have time off." But I mourned the end of that filming for weeks. I was talking to Keith about it and he had the same thing; he fell into a complete depression when the movie ended. Everything about it was so perfect. It was sort of such a magical time for everyone, just where we were. We were shooting in Montreal and there was a huge ice storm; it was all kind of eerie but beautiful. And Billy Crudup is fantastic. I think he just doesn't put a foot wrong as an actor and he's just a beautiful human being. It was such a wonderful set and such a great thing to work on. And Keith used a lot of music; he played music on the set.
The soundtrack for that is great. I makes me rediscover Joni Mitchell.
I always listen to a lot of Joni Mitchell so that was sort of my big album on that film. Certainly the songs are in the movie, but the songs "River" and "A Case of You." "Case of You," I think, is one of the best songs of all time. So I listened to that a lot, and also Lori Carson, who is on the soundtrack. That was really nice. Oh, and Jeff Buckley's in that too. Did it wind up in the movie, Jeff Buckley's " The Last Goodbye" ? I haven't seen it. That was another song [Keith] used to play on the set a lot.
That's interesting you haven't seen it. Is it hard for you to watch yourself?
Yeah, it's really difficult. I wouldn't think for pleasure to go back and watch a movie that I was in. It's just too much to get around. It's hard to watch them objectively. So yeah, it's not relaxing to me. Generally I see them when they come out so I can talk about them and know what it came out to be. But then I don't go back and re-watch them.
Have you seen a final version of House of Sand and Fog yet?
I did see a final version. I only saw a final version once though, which isn't really enough for me to be able to see clearly. Usually two screenings back to back is good, because the first time you're just thinking, "Oh my god, they moved that there and that's gone." And I'm like, "God, I'm horrendous in that scene." There's a lot that that goes on in the first screening. But, yeah. I think I'm happy with it.
The whole cast did a wonderful job, and Ben's performance was incredible. Tell us about working with him.
We didn't really have that many scenes together. There were only a couple, so we were largely separated for most of the movie. He doesn't make a lot of noise about what he's doing, which I like. There's not a lot of posturing. He very much knows what he's doing. He's very talented and accomplished and quite humble about what he's doing, much in the way Roger Deakins doesn't make a lot of fuss about what he's doing. And it isn't until you see it on the screen that you're like, "Oh my god, look at that shot. It's extraordinary." I saw the movie and saw what Ben had done and was really taken aback. Some actors you work with there's a lot of conversation about what they're doing and why it's so great as it's going on. [ laughs ] Or a lot of antics that draw attention to what they're doing. But Ben would just show up and do what he had to do very professionally and then you see it on the screen and it's extraordinary.
There was an scene, similarly, something that didn't wind up in the movie, that Roger shot that all I saw was the camera dolly and then someone said to me, "You should look at the playback." It was the most extraordinary shot. There was no fuss about [my] having to hit a mark at a certain time or anything. It was a shot that was sort of split through a reflection of glass and then another character turned his head and I was on the other side of the glass and you couldn't see me because of the light reflecting off the glass and the other character turned his head to look at me and it created a shadow in the form of a head that I was framed in perfectly. And then I looked up and I saw him and he turned his head and it was gone. The shot didn't wind up in the movie, but it's another example of someone who can work like that; you don't even see it happening necessarily.
Let's take A Beautiful Mind as an example for this next question. When you're working on something, can you feel that it will be special?
The movie itself, when I read the script it seemed like one of those worth fighting for. There are very few scripts that I read that are really clear and I think, "I would love to be in that movie." And I felt that way about that script and the people who were involved. So yeah, pretty much as soon as I read it I thought, "Yeah, this movie will really work," It seemed to be going well and I really enjoyed working on it and I really enjoyed working with Ron and Russell (Crowe).
It's hard to tell how it's going to turn out. Myself, I can never tell what I'm doing; I had no idea. More times than not I would walk away going, "Oh my god, I just ruined that scene." So I couldn't judge myself.
I know for the Hulk you spent time at labs and watched scientists. Addiction is a less tangible thing; how did you research it for Requiem and House of Sand and Fog ?
When I did Requiem I did a lot of research on it, going to rehab centers, talking to people who sort of told me their stories, read a lot, and then hung out with people who were still doing that, [including] a guy I had met who had a pretty hefty habit. Spent a lot of time with him, talking to him. So I did a lot of research for that and just sort of had a sense of it. And then also just thought about what... 'cause really in that movie it wasn't so much about the specific drug, the drug didn't really even get labelled. We assume it's heroin, but it didn't really get labelled. It was more just about addiction, so I spent a lot of time just thinking about the nature of addiction and what that feeling is for me, and the things that I use, to sort of lean on, as a crutch.
And then for House of Sand and Fog I talked to people who had cocaine habits, because that was her issue. But then I think I had spent so much time (on Requiem ) thinking about my own bad habits and looking for the things I kind of turn to, that I had sort of done that work by the time I did House of Sand and Fog .
But I had some friends who had had cocaine addictions, and drinking problems, that I talked to.
If you look at your recent filmography, you have definitely put yourself through an emotional ringer. It's a far cry from the early part of your career, where you did a lot of comedies.
I would love to [do a comedy]. It's hard for me to get cast in comedies because of that. It's sort of, "Oh, we have this romantic comedy, who should we cast?" I'm not on the top of the list. "Ooh, let's get that really depressed-seeming girl who always tries to top herself in movies." [ laughs ] I don't think I'm screaming out to be cast in a comedy right now, though I would love to be. So yeah, I have to do a little work on that to get myself into one, I think.
Any comedy directors you would love to work with?
I think Paul Thomas Anderson is interesting. The Coen Brothers have done some great comedies. And Wes Anderson has done some funny things. Igby Goes Down (Burr Steers) was funny.
What was the first film you remember seeing that made a big impact on you?
Well, the first one that's coming to my head was Last Tango in Paris , which we just saw again the other day. Marlon Brando was just fucking brilliant. Just incredible and was really well shot. There's one scene where he's just sitting there talking and [I'm thinking] "How big is this mag? How long is this take?" He was just extraordinary in that.
You started in this business very young. Was there a point where you had to recommit to acting and decide you wanted to stay with it?
Yeah, definitely. Also because I had found there was a big disparity between the kind of movies I had made and the kind of movies I liked to see, which was frustrating. I would say before I made Waking the Dead I started getting to that point where I was like, "Oh god, I'd really like to be doing this job I think, but I really need to be doing things that reflect my taste more." 'Cause I think I wound up having a resume that didn't necessarily have anything to do with who I was as a bigger kid. I thought about doing other things, but then again I don't really have the skills to do another job. [ laughs ]
What would you be doing if you weren't doing this?
I don't want to do anything else. I think it's a great job. I'm really fortunate in what I do. And I always see things that I wish I could do over and I want to do better, and places where I think I could [improve]. So then I go to the next one and think, "Well, okay, next time I'll do this better." Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. It's a great job. I like the life of it: I like being on the set, I like the kind of relationships you form, I like the whole sort of mood on a movie set. I like the opportunity to travel, the collaboration, and I like the doing of it.
So where are some of your favorite places you've been?
We just spent the summer in London and I loved it. I love being there. It's a great city. And you're three hours from Paris, which is another extraordinary city. I love being in Europe and sort of being able to hop over the next country with its own culture so readily. I like Argentina. I like kind of arid... my husband thinks I'm crazy for this and it goes with my sort of strangely Spartan, minimalist, slightly monk-ish tendencies, but I like really arid, mountainous landscapes. So I loved being in the Andes, up in the mountains there, between Argentina and Chile. I loved being in Tibet for the same reason. I love to travel. I really love it. I love Ireland. It's so interesting travelling. And I want to take my kids around the world, too. Kai has already travelled a bit. I think it's great for kids to be able to see the world.
Where's his favorite place?
He had a great time in London. His criteria right now is kind of funny. He likes his new school better than his old school because they serve edamame. So you never know why. He did like London a lot. He's into the whole knight thing now, knights and castles and whatnot. So it was great at this stage having him there, going to the Tower of London and Hampton Court and seeing where Henry VIII was. He loves all this kind of stuff. And then again we had a great playground, with a big pirate ship in the middle of it and that kind of sold him on London. I really want to take him to Venice. I took him to Costa Rica, which was great.
What are you reading right now?
I sort of pick things up and put them down because I don't really have time to read a whole book at a go, I get so interrupted. I've been picking up this John Pilger book called The New Rulers of the World . I've been trying to read that, but with new baby, new house, and travelling all around, I sort of read five pages, put it down, and then it's another week before I can read again.
I know you are a big reader though. If there was one fictional character you could play, who would it be?
A lot of them have been done. I always quite liked Mrs. Dalloway , but that one's been done. Maybe that. That was always one of my favorite books. I just reread Therese Raquin (Emile Zola), which is ghoulish, sort of classy pulp. [ laughs ] That would be quite fun.
You mentioned Billy Crudup and Russell Crowe. Who's on the list of people you'd still like to work with?
There are lots of people. If I mention some, then I'll forget a few other ones and I'll feel remiss. But Daniel Day Lewis is fabulous. I just saw Philip Seymour Hoffman in something; he's great. Ed Harris I've already worked with, but I'd always work with him, he's fantastic. Meryl Streep is genius, love to work with her. Emily Watson's really great, too. I like her. Was I supposed to do only boys? [ laughs ]
We talked before about your string of emotionally spent characters. Using Requiem for a Dream as an example, how do you leave that behind at the end of the day?
It was a bit harder then for me to separate than it is now. That was actually when I went to Costa Rica, when I finished that. I took Kai and my best friend Anna and we floated in the ocean for a couple of weeks to get rid of that thing. I found it a bit difficult for me to balance. As a nursing first-time mom it was kind of a shocking collision of worlds. And I was in a tiny apartment, so I got a little separate space that I rented in the building so I could have a place to go that wouldn't be full of primary colors and baby rattles. Just so I could get showered in the morning and put my head on to go to work.
I have found that, and I don't know if this means I'm getting worse as an actress [ laughs ] or just more comfortable with it, but it was much easier on both A Beautiful Mind and House of Sand and Fog doing those sorts of scenes. I found that it didn't put me through the same thing it did on Requiem . And Kai could be around a lot. I remember when I did A Beautiful Mind and I had scenes where I was sort of freaking out or whatever, Kai would often be there at work with me and he would be in the trailer and I'd go off and do my thing and come back and be playing again. Paul would be making fun of me in the trailer and then I'd go try to shoot myself and come back and he'd be there making fun of me again, which feels right to me, for me. I prefer keeping it there as opposed to taking it home.
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