Wonderful roles for: Jennifer Connelly
At 5’8″, she strikes quite a pose. Her gorgeous figure hasn’t hurt her popularity with the pimple crowd either. In fact, in the first days of the World Wide Web, a long, long time ago in 1994, Jennifer was, along with Pamela Anderson, the most searched woman on the Net.Before A Beautiful Mind, Jennifer’s sex appeal wasn’t evident to everyone, as she veered toward roles that emphasized her acting abilities rather than the usual sexpot roles.Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970)[1] is an American film actress, who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America. Connelly continued modeling and acting, starring in films such as the 1986 Labyrinth and the 1991 Career Opportunities. She gained critical acclaim for her work in the 1998 science fiction film Dark City and for her portrayal of Marion Silver in the 2000 drama Requiem for a Dream.
In 2002, Connelly won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for her supporting role as Alicia Nash in Ron Howard’s 2001 biopic A Beautiful Mind. Her later credits include the 2003 Marvel superhero film Hulk where she played Hulk/Bruce Banner’s true love Betty Ross, the 2005 thriller Dark Water, the 2006 drama Blood Diamond, the 2008 science fiction remake The Day the Earth Stood Still, the 2009 romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You and the 2009 biographical drama Creation. In 2012, she re-teamed with her Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky and A Beautiful Mind co-star Russell Crowe for the biblical epic Noah. Connelly was named Amnesty International Ambassador for Human Rights Education in 2005. She has been the face of Balenciaga fashion advertisements, as well as for Revlon cosmetics. In 2012, she was named the first global face of the Shiseido Company. Magazines including Time, Vanity Fair and Esquire, as well as the Los Angeles Times newspaper have included her on their lists of the world’s most beautiful women.
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Her first movie role was with Robert De Niro in Once Upon a Time in America. It was a great start, but unfortunately with the exception of The Rocketeer, most of her early movies didn’t receive too much press. Considering she has done more than 20 movies, her starmaking role was yet to come. After a two-year absence from the film scene, Connelly returned in the 2005 horror/psychological thriller Dark Water, which was based on a 2002 Japanese film of the same name. She played Dahlia, a frightened young woman traumatized by her past, who moves with her daughter to an apartment in New York City where paranormal happenings take place. In his review, critic Roger Ebert wrote, “I cared about the Jennifer Connelly character; she is not a horror heroine but an actress playing a mother faced with horror. There is a difference, and because of that difference, Dark Water works”.She played Kathy Adamson in an adaptation of the novel Little Children alongside Kate Winslet, a movie which focuses on the relationship between Sarah Pierce (played by Winslet) and Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson).Connelly co-starred in Blood Diamond opposite Leonardo DiCaprio where she portrayed journalist Maddy Bowen, who is working on exposing the real story behind blood diamonds.
New York praised her performance: “Connelly is such a smart, sane, unhistrionic actress that she almost disguises the fact that her character is a wheeze.” Both Little Children and Blood Diamond were nominated for multiple Academy Awards.Her next appearance was as Grace in the drama Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo, a film released in 2007. After her son dies in a hit-and-run, Grace gradually tries to overcome her grief, while her husband Ethan (Joaquin Phoenix) becomes obsessed with discovering who killed him. By her own account, the character she played in the movie proved tougher than any of her previous roles. USA Today’s Susan Wloszczyna commented, “The strong performances of Jennifer Connelly and Mark Ruffalo.. raise the film above overheated melodrama”.Parisian fashion house Balenciaga and Revlon cosmetics signed Connelly as the face of their 2008 campaigns. Connelly portrayed astrobiologist Helen Benson alongside Keanu Reeves in the 2008 remake of the 1951 science fiction film The Day The Earth Stood Still. Unlike the original movie, in which Benson was a secretary and her relationship with Klaatu was the focus, the remake featured Benson in a troubled relationship with her stepson, portrayed by Jaden Smith. This was followed by a role in the 2009 romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You, which also featured Jennifer Aniston and Ginnifer Goodwin. The film was based on the self-help book of the same name. Variety praised her portrayal: “Despite its layer of darkness Connelly gives a really rich performance as a woman whose principles back her into a corner”.In 2009, she appeared in the costume drama biopic Creation, in which she played Emma Darwin, wife of Charles Darwin, opposite her real-life husband Paul Bettany.[86] Set during the writing of On the Origin of Species, the movie depicts Darwin’s struggle with the subject of the book as well as with his wife, who opposed his theories, and their mourning for their daughter Annie. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “Darwin’s wife, a religious woman who disapproved of her husband’s theories, is played by Jennifer Connelly, Bettany’s real-life wife, in the kind of casting that doesn’t always work, but it does here. We believe in the Darwins’ history together, their familiarity and affection. Connelly’s English accent is also as good as Renée Zellweger’s and Gwyneth Paltrow’s. She doesn’t get just the sounds right, but also the music and the attitude”. She then voiced the character named “7”, an adventurous warrior in the animated film 9.
Dustin Lance Black’s Virginia premiered on September 15, 2010, at the Toronto International Film Festival. Two years later, it was announced that the movie would receive a limited theatrical release in May 2012. Connelly portrayed the title role of Virginia, a mentally unstable woman who has a 20-year affair with the local sheriff, whose daughter then starts a relationship with Virginia’s son. Connelly prepared for the role by watching documentaries on schizophrenia. She also spent time at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the New York University’s Cancer Center to understand the afflections and obstacles of her character. While she was preparing for the role, director Dustin Lance Black requested Connelly’s advice to design the set of Virginia’s house, as well as the selection of the apparel to create the character’s style.She described the film as a “very different” and “very personal” independent film. According to Cinema Blend, “Virginia is propped up by a strong central performance, with Connelly doing some of her best work in years”.In 2011, Connelly starred in Ron Howard’s comedy The Dilemma, opposite Vince Vaughn. Although the Austin Chronicle’s review noted, “Vaughn nails it, and his nicely nuanced everyguy performance is aided by the always-excellent Connelly,” the movie opened to generally negative reviews. Variety remarked, “Connelly, though a shade looser and more spontaneous than usual, seems stuck at an emotional remove from the action”. Her next project, George Ratliff’s Salvation Boulevard, premiered during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In the film Connelly played Gwen, the wife of Carl Vanderveer (Greg Kinnear); the couple are members of the Church of the Third Millennium, led by pastor Dan (Pierce Brosnan). During the same year, Connelly recorded an audiobook version of Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky, which integrates the A-List Collection of Audible.com, released in March 2012.
Her next project, starred alongside Greg Kinnear was the family drama Stuck in Love, the directorial debut of Josh Boone. Connelly played the ex-wife of Kinnear’s character, with whom he is obsessed.The film was premiered during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.In February 2012 Connelly was announced as the first global brand ambassador for Shiseido, having previously worked with the company in the 1980s in a series of advertisements for the Japanese market. Later the same year, she was confirmed for the role of Naameh in Darren Aronofsky’s Noah. It was also reported that Connelly would play a role in the film adaptation of the 1983 Mark Helprin novel Winter’s Tale, in the directorial debut of Akiva Goldsman, alongside Colin Farrell and William Hurt; As well as starring in the English-speaking directorial debut of Claudia Llosa Cry/Fly. On August 2013, it was announced that Connelly was casted by her husband, Paul Bettany, for his directorial debut Shelter
