Jennifer Connelly: Beauty in Distress

 

by Lynn Barker

Teenhollywood.com

December 21, 2003

 

Gorgeous Jennifer Connelly might have last caught your attention as the object of The Hulk's affections but the critics loved her in A Beautiful Mind opposite Russell Crowe. The part won her an Oscar, Golden Globe, and other critics' awards. Jennifer is recently married to Master and Commander actor Paul Bettany and they have a new baby. You would have no idea that she is dealing with the sleepless nights inherent in new parenting. When we spoke to the dark-haired, green-eyed actress, it was early morning but she was fresh and very friendly in a rose top, green cargo pants and heels for our talk about her film House of Sand and Fog.

In "House", based upon the award-winning, best-selling novel, Oscar winners Jennifer and Sir Ben Kingsley are pitted against one another in a battle over a house that represents much more than its four walls. She's a recovering addict whose only possession is her childhood home. When the county kicks her out for erroneous taxes, Sir Ben's character, a displaced Iranian family man from the era of the Shah, moves in and won't let go. This isn't a jolly film and Jennifer's role was taxing.

TeenHollywood: Do you live in L.A. now?

Jennifer: No. We live in New York and we still have Paul's place in London and spend a lot of time going back and forth.

TeenHollywood: Do you want to work together?

Jennifer: Yeah. But we want to be careful what we do together. I think a lot of people don't want to see married couples together which I find frustrating because I would think it's great. Look at all this free rehearsal time they'd get. If they only knew, we'd be up all night going 'we could do this or this'. We both think it would be fun to do something where we're pitted against one another; a sort of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' sort of thing.

TeenHollywood: Is this film about how much weight we Americans place on possessions?

Jennifer: Yeah, I think so. We were talking about being intolerant. Clearly Behrani [Sir Ben's character] feels that he won't be accepted unless he is able to provide a certain lifestyle. I don't think it's limited just to the Americans in this story. He's really ashamed of his current situation when his daughter comes and he doesn't want to admit to his own family how he's working. He cleans up and pretends he's something he's not right now. I think both characters are experiencing that.

TeenHollywood: Did you get depressed from doing the film?

Jennifer: Not really. When I get depressed is when I'm working on something that I am not happy with. I can't let go of that in my head. I go over and over it and carry it in my head for months after the job if I feel like it hasn't gone well or I didn't like the movie or whatever. So this, I was really happy doing the scenes every day. It was a bit tiring but it was exhilarating for me.

TeenHollywood: Is it hard not to take something like this home with you at night?

Jennifer: I don't think my life would allow it at this point. Now, I have two kids but when I was doing the movie I had a six-year-old who I hadn't seen all day who I'd want to play with and a husband who made fun of me for taking myself too seriously [laughs] so there was just no time for it, really. It's really good actually. Everything stays in its place. I don't feel right now that I need to torture myself to work. It's better for all of us that way.

TeenHollywood: Your director Vadim Perelman was a Russian immigrant with his own sad story. Did that carry over into his direction?

Jennifer: Well, he was very passionate about making the movie and we all threw ourselves into it. We didn't sit around telling stories about our history since we had a full plate to accomplish every day. He did tell me some of his history when I first met him and, at that point, let me know why this was an important movie for him.

TeenHollywood: Was Sir Ben Kingsley attached when you first read the script?

Jennifer: Yes. When I read the script, I couldn't imagine anyone who could have done it better than him. I think he's magnificent in everything I've seen him in and so I was really excited to work with him and I wasn't, in any way, let down. He's one of those people who you have respect for when you see them in a movie and you work with him and have all the more respect for him.

TeenHollywood: What was the process like working with him?

Jennifer: It wasn't a madly improvisational set. Neither of us, at work, is like a merry prankster but neither of us was sulky either. We got along really well. We enjoyed talking to each other and working with each other but it was a kind of well-run, efficient, professional set. He's very polite and respectful of everyone. He knows what he's doing. Some actors make a lot of noise about what they're doing due to lack of confidence and he doesn't need to do any of that. His work speaks for itself. [Sir Ben has been nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance]

TeenHollywood: The movie is kind of two versions of what the American Dream has become. Can you talk about that?

Jennifer: Well, to me, they [her character and Ben's] are posited against one another in this but they're both experiencing a similar dilemma although neither fits the bill of a classic American hero. Neither is the fairy-tale American citizen.

They're both on the fringes of society and I think they're both suffering from intolerance because of that. I think, within themselves, they each have a sense of a role they need to fulfill to appease their families or society at large and I think both of them are unable to accept themselves as they actually are right now in life. Kathy [Jennifer's character], her family only wants to see her on their terms. The first phone call with the mother it's 'are you smoking again? Are you still on the program?' and the woman from Legal Aid who is supposedly there to support the downtrodden says 'Well, you know if you'd opened your mail, this wouldn't have happened to you'. So she's not given the benefit of the doubt. And similarly, Behrani and his family are not given the benefit of the doubt being immigrants so, in a way, both of them being outsiders, have a similar dilemma.

TeenHollywood: Does your character Kathy have some prejudice against immigrants?

Jennifer: Absolutely. I think she has some of that prejudice that a lot of native citizens have. They don't think that entitlement should be extended to foreigners coming into the country. I think she has a bit of that. I think that's entirely wrong. All humans are entitled to the same treatment and kindness but I think she's guilty of that. It's also wrapped up in the fact that the house is so much more than a house to her. It's a measure of her failure so she clings to it with such desperation because it's so much more than just a building.

TeenHollywood: Do you feel a lot of important things in the book were left out in the film?

Jennifer: The book is wonderful. It is written in alternating first person so there are chapters written from Lester (the police officer's) point of view, from Behrani's point of view and Kathy's point of view. So the chapters that are Kathy's, it's like having the character's diary, basically because there's this internal monologue. I read that many times. If I had questions, I'd go back and see what was written about that in the book. There are things in the book that I loved but there just isn't the time. It wasn't 'the Kathy show'. It has to get distilled. I think Vadim did a great job writing the screenplay and one of the most essential things; your feeling that your sympathies are torn between these characters, there's no good or bad guy. There's a little of each in all the characters; that's preserved from the book

TeenHollywood: You had a great on screen bonding experience with Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo who plays Ben's wife. Was that the case in real life as well?

Jennifer: She is overflowing with love. She is the most gorgeous woman you would ever want to meet in every way, beautiful to look at. You sit with her for ten minutes and you think 'I want to fix you up with my dad'. Her husband came to the set one day after I was working out all these little fantasies and he's quite handsome and they look really happy together and I was really moody that day. She's wonderful. I just adore her.

TeenHollywood: Had you ever had any experiences similar to your character's?

Jennifer: My life's been really different than hers but, oh gosh, I've had a desperate day or two here and there and I can be a moody buggar. I've gone through a kleenex or two in my day.

TeenHollywood: Was there a huge difference between shooting this and your part in The Hulk?

Jennifer: Yes. On The Hulk, [director] Ang [Lee] wanted the movie to be really stylized which is French for a lot of camera set-ups which, again, is French for a lot of time in your trailer. And so I got to House of Sand and Fog and I saw on the call sheet the first day I had three big scenes and I looked at the call sheet and said, 'yeah right. As ifÉ'. We started working at six in the morning and by ten we had finished the first scene. I was like 'hell, I really need to know my lines'. It was very refreshing, a bit shocking at first but it was refreshing.

TeenHollywood: How do you think Europeans will see this film?

Jennifer: I think that right now America is seen as a very racially intolerant culture. This movie is deeply anti-racist, I think. It sympathizes with an Iranian family. It would seem like an odd movie to come out of America and I think it's great of Dreamworks to be behind it.

TeenHollywood: Are you finding it hard to find great roles to play?

Jennifer: I read a lot of things that you would be shocked. It's all grim. I know there are really talented people out there.

The numbers and budgets have gotten so high that it's hard to take risks. Everything feels like a pastiche of ten other movies you've seen and yes, liked but do we want to see a patchwork of them so I find it difficult find stuff. Since the Oscar I have more opportunities and offers than I did before but it's not changing the quality of scripts that I see.