Jennifer Connelly, or Jenny C as most people call her, has received many praises in her acting career, but it was not until Requiem for a Dream that she received critical acclaim. As little girl who started her career in the modeling world, Jenny C has now grown into a successful actress with awards under her belt.
Movie Debut
Connelly’s first movie, Once Upon a Time in America, was directed by Italian director Sergio Leone Director Leone was looking for a ballet dancer and although she had no ballet training, Connelly imitated a ballerina and got the role.
First Leading Role
In 1985, Italian director Dario Argento casted Jennifer Connelly to star in his movie, Phenomena. Jenny C played the role of a teenager who communicates with insects. Of the same year, she starred in another movie, Seven Minutes in Heaven. According to Connelly, she was too young to know whether she really liked acting. One thing she remembers was how hard it wasto be alone during her adolescence years because she was constantly surrounded by people.
Breakthrough Roles
Hearing Jennifer Connelly’s name brings back three wonderful movies that I have seen. The first one is Requiem for a Dream, followed by A Beautiful Mind and lastly, Blood Diamond.
Requiem for a Dream
Requiem for a Dream is considered to be thebreakthrough movie for Jennifer Connelly. The movie talks about addiction, its effect and how it can led to desperation and delusion. Marion Silver was a heroin addict who will do everything, including prostitution, in order to have a hit. Receiving a positive review from Rotten Tomatoes and from movie critics in Hollywood, the movie not only made Director Darren Aronofsky a famous director, it also made its stars a household name, including Connelly.
A Beautiful Mind
Based on a true story, A Beautiful Mind talks of the life of Nobel Prize winner Josh Nash. Jennifer Connelly played the role of Nash’ wife, Alicia. Although Requiem for a Dream made Connelly’s name a household one, A Beautiful Mind cemented her bankability as an actress. Earning more than $300M in the box office, this is the highest grossing movie of Connelly so far. Her performance in this movie also led her to winning Best Actress from different award giving bodies such as BAFTA, Academy Awards and American Film Institute.
Blood Diamond
A political war film, Blood Diamond, was set in Sierra Leone in Africa. Connelly starred alongside Leonardo Di Caprio and Djimon Hounsou. Connelly played the role of Maddy Bowen, an idealist reporter. With Connelly’s presence, the bloody and forsaken story of Solomon and Danny became more logical. Her portrayal of an innocent reporter gave the movie a human element to make it less frightening for being too political
After bagging nominations and awards in Requiem for a Dream and A Beautiful Mind, Connelly continued to play roles that challenged her flexibility as an actress. She went on to play the role of Charles Darwin’s wife in Creation, alongside her real life husband, Paul Bettany.
Virginia
She also played the character Virginia in the movie Virgina. She plays a mentally unstable woman. For her performance in this movie, Cinema Blend’s Katey Rich stated that “Connelly has rarely looked more fragile or dangerous; like Virginia she's adrift in a world that doesn't quite appreciate her, and just as you root for Virginia to pull it together and leave town, you root for Connelly to track down a better movie.”
In 2014, Connelly continued to impress her fans as she played Naameh (Noah’s wife) in the 2014 blockbuster movie, Noah. Working with this film was like a reunion as Connelly worked again with Director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream) and Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind). It is no wonder that the result was another astounding performance from Jenny C.
Post Production Movies
At the moment, Jenny C is busy working on Granite Mountain that is set to be released this September and Alita: Battle Angel which is set to be released next year. When she is not filming, Jenny C stays in her house in New York with her family and husband Paul Bettany.
