In 2002, Connelly won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as the BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for the 2001 biopic A Beautiful Mind.[4] Other film appearances include the 2003 Marvel superhero film Hulk, the 2005 thriller drama Dark Water, Blood Diamond, The Day the Earth Stood Still and the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You.
Since 2005, Connelly has served as Amnesty International Ambassador for Human Rights Education for the United States. During her career, various magazines, including Time,[5] Vanity Fair,[6] and Esquire[7] have named her on their lists of the most beautiful women.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Early life
| "Monologue of Love" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single by Jennifer Connelly | |
| A-side | Monologue of Love |
| B-side | Message of Love |
| Released | December 1986 |
| Format | 7" |
| Genre | Pop |
| Label | Toshiba East World Records |
One of her father's friends was an advertising executive, who suggested that she should audition in order to become a child model.[11][15] She received the representation from the Ford modeling agency.[16] At the age of ten, Connelly's career started in newspaper and magazine ads, then moved to television commercials. In 1984, she appeared in Duran Duran's concept concert video Arena (An Absurd Notion).[17] From 1986 to 1992, she appeared in several issues of the Seventeen Magazine as well as in Japanese magazine "Roadshow"[18] and on December 1986, recorded the pop single “Monologue of Love” singing in phonetic Japanese.[15]
All these appearances led to movie auditions and her first film role was as Deborah Gelly, a supporting role in Sergio Leone's 1984 gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America, filmed mostly in 1982 when she was eleven.[19] She next starred in Italian horror-director Dario Argento's 1985 film Phenomena[20] and in the coming-of-age movie Seven Minutes in Heaven.[21]
Balancing work and school, she enrolled at Yale University where she studied English and Drama for the two following years,[22] before transferring to Stanford University to train in classical Theater and improvisation with Roy London, Howard Fine and Harold Guskin. She did not graduate.[23]
[edit] Career
[edit] Early career
Connelly became a star with her next picture, the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth. She played Sarah, a teenager on the quest to rescue her little brother Toby, from goblin's world, ruled by King Jareth, portrayed by David Bowie. The film disappointed at the box office, but became a cult classic in later years with a large fan base still in existence.[24] She starred as Jennifer Corvino in Phenomena under the direction from Italian giallo master[25] Dario Argento.[26] Connelly starred in several obscure films, such as the 1988 Etoile, which was never released in the United States, one of the less successful in her career.[27] and the Michael Hoffman-directed Some Girls, in which she portrayed the college student Gabby.[28] In the 1990 Dennis Hopper-directed The Hot Spot, she played Gloria Harper, a woman blackmailed by Frank Sutton, portrayed by William Sadler.[29] The movie was a box office failure.[11][30] Her next movie was the 1991 romantic comedy Career Opportunities, in which she starred along with Frank Whaley.[31] The big-budget Disney film The Rocketeer failed[32] to ignite her career; this resulted in a temporary break in Connelly's acting work. The next year, she appeared alongside Jason Priestley in the Roy Orbison music video for "I Drove All Night".[33]It wasn't until the middle of the 1990s that she started to demonstrate her ability to handle more mature roles.[34][35] The 1996 independent film Far Harbor played a role very different from the types she had previously portrayed and hinted at a much broader range than she had previously shown. Connelly began to appear in smaller but well-regarded films, such as 1997's drama Inventing the Abbotts, and 2000's Waking the Dead. In the first one, set in the late 1950s,[36] she personified Eleanor, one of the three daughters of the town millionaire Lloyd Abbot,[37] while in the second, based on the 1986 novel of the same name,[38] her character was Sarah.[39] She played a collegiate lesbian[35][40] in John Singleton's 1995 ensemble drama, Higher Learning.[41] The critically favored 1998 science fiction film Dark City, in which she played a supporting role and afforded her the chance to work with such actors as Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Ian Richardson, and Kiefer Sutherland.[42] Connelly revisited her ingenue image, although in a more understated way, for the 2000 biopic Pollock,[43] in which she played Jackson Pollock's mistress. The same year she portrayed the role of Catherine Miller, Connelly's first Television appearance,[35] in the FOX drama series The $treet about a brokerage house in New York City.[44]
[edit] Breakthrough and early 2000s
In 2001 she took the leading female role in Ron Howard's film A Beautiful Mind, [50] essaying the role of Alicia Nash, the long-suffering wife of the brilliant, schizophrenic mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. (played by Russell Crowe).[51] The film was a critical and commercial success and earned Connelly a Golden Globe,[52] an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress[53] and a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Supporting Role;[54]
| “ | [A Beautiful Mind] is the film I'm really proud of and really love.[55] | ” |
Connelly starred in two films in 2003: Hulk and House of Sand and Fog. In Hulk she portrayed Betty Ross, the scientist and former girlfriend of the main character, Bruce Banner. She stated that the philosophical perspective of the noted director Ang Lee on the Marvel's superhero was the reason that awoke her interest in taking the role.[57] The movie would result in a moderate success at the box office.[58] House of Sand and Fog, based on the novel by Andre Dubus III, was reminiscent of much of her independent film work of the late 1990s. Her character was Kathy Nicolo, an abandoned wife whose inherited house is sold at auction to the Iranian emigre Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley).[59] The struggles between Kathy and the foreign Colonel intensify throughout the story as the characters fall in a downward spiral of events.[60] The film was a modest box office success worldwide however received much critical acclaim.
[edit] 2005–2007
After two years off acting,[61] Connelly appeared in the 2005 horror film and psychological thriller[62] Dark Water.[63] The film was based on a 2002 Japanese film. She personifies a frightened young woman, Dahlia who is traumatized by her past and moves with her daughter (played by Ariel Gade) to an Roosevelt Island apartment where paranormal happenings take place.[64]
She next appeared as Grace in Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo, which was given a limited release in the fall of 2007.[69] According to her, the character she portrayed in this movie was the toughest role she has ever played in her career.[70]
[edit] 2008–present
In 2008 she appeared alongside Keanu Reeves in the 2008 remake of the 1951 science fiction film The Day The Earth Stood Still. Connelly, a fan of the original movie,[71] played the Princeton University astrobiologist Dr. Helen Benson. Unlike the original movie, where her character was a secretary and the focus of the movie was balanced in her romantic relationship with Klaatu, the remake emphasizes on the troubled relationship between her and her stepson portrayed by Jaden Smith.[72] The astronomer Seth Shostak prepared her in order to understand the scientific jargon of the character.[73]She also co-starred in a role opposite Jennifer Aniston and Ginnifer Goodwin in the 2008 romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You,[74] based on self-help book of the same name,[75] where she played Janine.[76] Her next work was a small role in the fantasy film Inkheart.[77]
Her 2009 roles included the costume drama biopic Creation, in which she personified Emma Darwin, wife of Charles Darwin, played by her real-life husband, Paul Bettany.[78] The movie took place during the writing of On the Origin of Species by Dr. Darwin and the struggle along with his religious wife, Emma, who opposed the theories while they were in deep grief for the passing of their daughter Annie.[79] The same year she voiced 7, in the animation film 9.[80]
In 2008, she was named the face of Balenciaga's advertisements,[81] as well as the new face for Revlon cosmetics.[82]
Her next movie, What's Wrong With Virginia, was premiered on September 15, 2010 at the Toronto International Film Festival.[83][84] Connelly portrayed a mentally unstable woman, who has a twenty year long affair with the local sheriff, whose daughter starts a relationship with Virginia's son.[85] Connelly's upcoming movies include Ron Howard's comedy The Dilemma, to be premiered on January 14, 2011,[86] and George Ratliff's Salvation Boulevard to be premiered on January 24, during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.[87]
[edit] Personal life
Despite her successful film career, Connelly stated that she prefers to live a family life with her husband and children when she is not working.[11] She also expressed that the most important thing in her life is her family,[88] with whom she lives in TriBeCa, New York City.[89]| “ | I try to stay focused on my life and do try not to be brought into the Hollywood fantasy.[90] | ” |
Her first son, Kai was born in 1997, from her relationship with photographer David Dugan.[92] She gave up her veganism during her first pregnancy.[93] In 2003, she married the actor Paul Bettany,[5] whom she met while working on A Beautiful Mind, in a private family ceremony in Scotland.[94] The couple's first child and Connelly's second, Stellan,[95] named after their friend, actor Stellan Skarsgård,[96] was born the same year. His godfather is the actor Charlie Condou.[97] She is expecting her third child (second with husband Paul Bettany) in 2011.[98]
Connelly contributed to several charity causes. On November 14, 2005, She was named Amnesty International Ambassador for Human Rights Education.[99] She was featured in an advertising for highlighting the need of clean water of people globally with the end result that people made donations to drilling projects in Africa, India, and Central America.[100] On May 2, 2009, she participated of Revlon's annual 5k Run/Walk for Women along with Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel.[101] She is also a fluent speaker in Italian and French.[11][102][
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