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Interview with Beer.com
By Fred Topel
Beer.com
January, 2002
Most of us have been in love with Jennifer Connelly since Labyrinth. Those who missed it probably caught Career Opportunities or The Rocketeer. But part of Connelly's great beauty is there is more to her than dream-girl looks. In movies like Waking the Dead and Requiem for a Dream, she opened her soul to show simultaneous vulnerability and strength.
In her newest film, A Beautiful Mind, she plays Alicia Nash, the wife of Nobel Prize-winning genius John Nash (Russell Crowe). The film is inspired by their lives, but with creative license. Ron Howard directs the human drama of Nash's inner journey as he struggles with demanding government work, feelings of social inadequacy, and paranoid schizophrenia with Alicia by his side.
In real life, Connelly is a single mother to a four-year-old son living in New York City. When we met recently in Hollywood, she was more beautiful in person than on screen, showing a soul of greater depth than most young stars as she reflected on her career and her films.
beer.com: Are you conscious of downplaying the media in your career or is it the nature of some of the characters you play that they don't always get "spotlight" attention?
Jennifer Connelly: I don't know. I can't comment on any outside perception. I'm happy to come out and talk about movies that I've worked on in a setting like this. Otherwise I have my own life that I live which is very different and private. So maybe it's that, and also I live in New York, and I'm a mom. I hang out with my son and go to playgrounds.
b: What attracted you to A Beautiful Mind?
JC: It was such a beautiful script. I loved the story. I thought it was well handled. I thought it was even more moving because it's a true story. That made it even more poignant. Ron was involved. Russell was already involved, and I think he's a great actor. And the woman, no matter what kind of movie it is - studio or independent - was kind of a ferocious, spirited, intelligent, beautiful character; a very strong woman, and I was drawn to her.
b: Could you relate to her?
JC: I could ... and I really was very happy that it was important to Ron to preserve her humanity, which is to say, he didn't want her to become any sort of implausible martyr; an implausible heroine who is just really the long-suffering wife. She kind of falls apart in self-pity and rage and doubt, and really struggles and breaks down herself. I felt that made her really human, in the sense that she feels those emotions are all very human emotions. I don't know anyone who hasn't felt those emotions at times.
b: Did you meet the real life Alicia?
JC: I did. I met Alicia . I wanted to meet her before we started working. I went out to...New Jersey where she works and sat down and had lunch with her. Even though this movie is inspired by their story and the events of their lives, in that same way our Alicia is a fictionalized version of the real Alicia Nash . Still, for my own piece of mind, I wanted to go there and say, "I'm playing you, more or less, with some license. Is there anything that you really would like me to convey about you or is there anything that is important that I don't convey?" And I would respect that. But in reality, it just became a nice lunch. She wanted to know about Russell Crowe and how movies are made.
b: Russell Crowe has a "reputation." How did you find him to be?
JC: He doesn't like to take anything for granted. If it says in the script: "He walks over there, and he says this, there will be a conversation," he'll ask, "Is that really the best thing for me to do, and what happens if I do this instead?" He makes interesting choices, he likes to explore on the set and he's kind of spontaneous and available as an actor, which I think is great. You just have to be able to be there with him and enjoy that kind of work. I really do.
b: Has your son seen your films yet?
JC: No. He saw the trailer for "A Beautiful Mind. I think his dad showed him Labyrinth once. I wasn't there so I don't know what the reaction was. He saw the trailer [to Mind] and his response was, "You were really mean when you threw that glass at the mirror. Why did you do that?" But some of the movies that I've done recently have not been appropriate for him to see. And then, a lot of the old movies I would really rather not watch again myself.
b: Are you saying you don't want to watch Labyrinth anymore?
JC: No, I haven't seen that movie in a long time. I loved working on that movie. I loved everyone involved. But it's funny looking at yourself. You know how it is when you look back at old pictures? It's just funny looking back at yourself walking and talking at age 14.
b: How old will your son have to be to see Requiem for a Dream?
JC: We'll see how he develops. I mean, he's kind of precocious. One, I guess when he shows interest. I'm certainly not going to say, "Now, son, it's time to sit down and watch your mom's work." If he wants to watch it, I mean, what's the age - 18, 16? It depends on when he's in the right frame of mind to handle it.
b: What drew you to "Requiem?
JC: I've always wanted to understand people. It's just in my nature to try and understand why we are here and communicate with people. That was a movie I felt strongly about. I felt strongly about the idea of looking at addiction. Not just addiction to drugs, but people and their relationships to their mothers and people not feeling protected and mothered, maybe. This is my personal view of the movie and why it was important. People not trusting themselves, people not loving themselves or respecting themselves and therefore, people who are incapable of having any kind of intimate relationship. Who then are feeling this incredible hunger and void and have to turn to some quantifiable external product to make them feel whole. That's a lot safer because you can measure it out.
You can't predict what someone else is going to do and when they're going to leave. I think that's really tragic, and I think that's really prevalent in our world, on really subtle levels sometimes, but I think it's really prevalent. I think it's great to be able to lend myself to discussions about this.
b: I have to ask you about "Waking the Dead. Do you think Sarah was alive or a ghost?
JC: Keith Gordon, the director, felt really strongly about not making that clear, even for us. I asked him, and he would never give me the answer, so I had to make my own conclusion. I felt I had to play it that she was alive, and then anyone could make their own interpretations from there.
b: Was it hard to go from child actor to serious adult actress?
JC: I went through a period a long time ago when I was a lot younger, when I thought it was all so stressful. Growing up while being watched from the outside ... it's kind of taxing [I thought] and maybe I should just do some kind of manual labor - it might be more relaxing. But I can't, it's not in my nature.
So I keep coming back to acting and I've "re-chosen" it. Then there was a period where I felt like I wasn't quite being considered for the projects that I wanted to work on because maybe people were thinking, "I'm not going to cast the girl who was in that movie for this adult project." There was a period of transition for me. I've felt for a long time that this is what I want to do so I'm happy at this point to just take my time and work on projects that I feel really strongly about and the rest of the time just live my life. I love getting the opportunity to work on projects like this. It means a lot to me.
b: Is it true you're playing Betty Ross in The Hulk?
JC: Yes.
b: What is your familiarity with the comic and the old TV series?
JC: I used to watch the old TV series when I was a kid. This is going to be very different from that. We're going to have one actor play both parts. And, it's Ang Lee. I would be shocked if it's like any comic book movie that I've ever seen. He has very ambitious ideas for this movie and that's what really got me on board - him, and the way that he wants to approach it, which is very creative.
b: What are some of those ideas?
JC: I can't give them away. It's way too early.
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