Delving Deep Into Jennifer Connelly's 'Beautiful Mind'
By Brandon Gray
Fri, Dec 21, 2001, 01:12 PM PT

"Oscar Winner Russell Crowe, Oscar Nominee Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly," is how the trailer for "A Beautiful Mind" rattles off the names of its stars, almost as if it were saying "here are our two serious actors, and here's the eye candy." While most men would certainly agree that the voluptuous Connelly qualifies as the latter, she's racked up some serious acting credits since her days of being harassed by David Bowie in "Labyrinth" and romancing "The Rocketeer."

Though the 31-year-old actress made her screen debut in Sergio Leone's 1984 gangster epic "Once Upon a Time in America," she's blossomed in the past few years with roles in such critically acclaimed fare as 1998's "Dark City" and the 2000 releases "Waking the Dead," "Pollock" and "Requiem for a Dream," culminating in her being cast opposite Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind," a role will likely allow her to labeled as at least an "Oscar nominee" in her future screen billings.

"A Beautiful Mind" is inspired by the true story of Nobel Prize-winning mathematician and professor John Nash (Crowe), who suffered from schizophrenia. Connelly plays the strong-willed Alicia, a student who aggressively pursues Nash and ultimately marries him, helping him through the hard times of his disease.

"We didn't want her to become sort of implausible martyr," Connelly tells Zap2it.com. "She kind of falls apart in self-pity and rage and doubt, and really struggles and breaks down herself. And I thought that made her really human."

Connelly describes Alicia as "a ferocious, spirited, intelligent and beautiful character." The actress herself looks as good as she does on the screen. Though still full-figured with a freckly girl-next-door beauty, she's become more streamlined with age. Her long, dark hair drapes over her white doily-like blouse, though doesn't hide her face and lips with red lipstick. She sits with her hands in her lap and speaks deliberately, her deep hazel eyes suggesting profound thoughts brewing in her mind.

"Even though Alicia is a fictionalized version of the real Alicia Nash, I still wanted -- just for my own piece of mind -- to go and say 'I'm playing you, more or less. What's your life like?,'" Connelly recalls of her preparation for the role. "'Is there anything that you would really like me to convey about you.' But in reality it became just sort of a nice lunch and she wanted to know about Russell Crowe and how movies are made."

Connelly has a four-year-old son named Kai. Her career didn't take a dramatic turn until after she became a single mother.

"The projects that I choose, it's even more important to me now as I look at the world that Kai is growing up in and the kind of stimulus that is out there ... They're so precious," Connelly bursts with emotion, "and I'd do anything to protect him, so I don't want to put things out there that are going to confuse, hurt and cause more pain ... pointlessly."

"It isn't to say that I'm never going to make a sort of fun, comedy or something that isn't like some heavy movie with a mission," Connelly explains, "but I do think about those things. I do finish reading a script and say, 'why are they making it and what are they talking about?"

"More profoundly, motherhood's a huge catalyst for growth, for change," Connelly continues. "And I think about this e.e. cummings poem, it says 'Nobody not even the rain has such small hands' and I think of my son in that way. He's kind of reached inside of me. I don't think anyone ever could have gotten inside of me the way he has."

Connelly's son has seen some of her work, but she's not terribly interested in dwelling in her past. "A lot of the old movies, I would really rather not watch again myself. I think his dad showed him 'Labyrinth,'" she hesitantly reveals. "He saw the 'A Beautiful Mind' trailer. His response, 'you were really mean in that last part, Mommy. Why'd you do that?'"

"But some of the movies I've done recently have not been really appropriate for him to see," Connelly says, alluding to her explicit role in "Requiem for a Dream."

Raising her son in New York City, Connelly was there amidst the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "We live in downtown Manhattan, and we have pretty big windows that looked right out onto the World Trade Center," she recalls. "I was home alone with Kyle and we watched it all happen. I was holding him in my arms when we were looking out the window when the second plane hit, to which I gasped and he put his hand on my face and he said, 'Shhhh, Mommy, Mommy, don't get upset, You're the grown-up.' I became the filter through which he measured his reaction to what was happening, so at that time I really needed to keep my own emotions in check and be there for him."

Connelly will next appear in the Marvel Comics adaptation "The Hulk" directed by Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). Though the project may sound contradictory to her philosophy, she insists that it's not.

"Ang's not talking about, 'I want to see a guy running around in green tights and I want to make a real glossy fun-filled movie for kids,'" Connelly explains. "He's talking along these lines of tragedy and psychodrama. I find it really interesting, the green monster of rage and greed and jealousy and fear in all of us. In fact, it's such a serious movie that the Hulk doesn't appear in the beginning of the movie."

All told, Connelly is content in her career. "Acting's sort of my niche," she declares. "I need to be involved in some sort of creative expression. It's like a personal, archaeological dig everytime you work on a project, and I love that."