Jennifer Connelly walks us through her legendary career, discussing her roles in 'Once Upon a Time in America,' 'Labyrinth,' 'Requiem for a Dream,' 'A Beautiful Mind,' 'Shelter,' 'Top Gun: Maverick,' 'Dark Matter' and more.
'Dark Matter' is now streaming on Apple TV+.
00:00 Jennifer Connelly
00:36 Once Upon a Time in America
02:52 Labyrinth
04:55 Requiem for a Dream
07:33 A Beautiful Mind
09:21 House of Sand and Fog
10:21 Shelter
11:32 Top Gun: Maverick
13:31 Dark Matter
'Dark Matter' is now streaming on Apple TV+.
00:00 Jennifer Connelly
00:36 Once Upon a Time in America
02:52 Labyrinth
04:55 Requiem for a Dream
07:33 A Beautiful Mind
09:21 House of Sand and Fog
10:21 Shelter
11:32 Top Gun: Maverick
13:31 Dark Matter
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 It's just a connection that I have with that character's experience.
00:03 Like if you watch a movie that's really effective and really moves you
00:08 and you find yourself in a movie theater crying,
00:10 it's like, not necessarily that you're intellectually thinking,
00:13 "Oh, this reminds me of what I experienced with my dad or with my sister," or whatever,
00:18 but it reaches you on some, like, human level.
00:21 [music]
00:27 Hi, I'm Jennifer Connelly, and this is the timeline of my career.
00:32 [music]
00:35 My beloved is white and ruddy.
00:38 His skin is as the most fine gold.
00:41 His cheeks are as a bed of spices.
00:44 [music]
00:48 Even though he hasn't washed since last December.
00:51 I was 10, and we lived in Brooklyn Heights,
00:54 and I remember pretty much every day we'd go on the subway and go into the city,
00:59 and I'd do, like, a couple jobs.
01:01 And then I started doing commercials.
01:03 It wasn't something that I chose for myself.
01:06 I think I was really shy,
01:09 and I enjoyed it in that I liked meeting people,
01:11 and I always wanted to be very professional,
01:14 do as good a job as I could.
01:16 Like, "Firestarter," I remember, was one of the movies that I auditioned for and didn't get.
01:22 And then I had this audition for "Once Upon a Time in America,"
01:25 and I had zero training and, like, no skill at that point whatsoever.
01:33 I think I was really helped by the fact that I looked enough like Elizabeth McGovern.
01:39 So I was playing the character that she was playing as a young girl.
01:42 I remember, actually, I was supposed to play a dancer,
01:45 and they asked me to, like, improvise a ballet dance,
01:49 and I can only imagine what that must have looked like,
01:52 because I have never taken ballet, so that must have been pretty silly.
01:56 But I got it somehow.
01:57 When I was that age, it was really remarkable being on the set of "Once Upon a Time in America."
02:02 I think it's such a beautiful film, and he was such an extraordinary director, Sergio Leone.
02:06 I was so mesmerized by him.
02:09 I thought he was such a genius, and he was so gentle,
02:12 and I honestly didn't have much of a sense of what I was getting into.
02:18 At the time, we filmed some of it in New York,
02:21 but then they had recreated sort of New York City streets on a back lot in Rome,
02:27 and I just loved being there, and the sets were so magical,
02:31 and I was completely awestruck by the talent, the sets, the cinematography, all of the actors.
02:40 It was really magical for me being on that set,
02:44 so it kind of made me fall in love with, you know, making films.
02:48 You're him, aren't you?
02:55 You're the Goblin King.
02:58 I want my brother back, please, if it's all the same.
03:00 What's said is said.
03:02 But I didn't mean it.
03:04 Oh, you didn't.
03:06 It was like a wonderland.
03:08 We filmed in London, and we had these massive builds that were so detailed and so magnificent,
03:14 and we had lots of rehearsals with the puppeteers, and that was just so extraordinary.
03:20 Like, I had never been exposed to that world before.
03:23 It was literally like a playground for me, being on set and getting to run around and interact with the puppets,
03:29 and Jim was like an explosion of creativity.
03:34 I've never met anyone like him.
03:36 He was so kind and gentle with me and patient.
03:41 You would have multiple puppeteers working on one puppet at a time.
03:45 Like, we had the character that my character spent the most time with is this character named Hoggle.
03:50 I'm Hoggle.
03:51 So there was a person inside the suit.
03:54 She had a head on, and she couldn't see out through the eyes, 'cause they were like glass eyes.
03:58 And then there were like four different puppeteers working together just to do facial expressions.
04:04 It was pretty wild.
04:06 You remind me of the babe.
04:07 What babe?
04:08 Babe with the power.
04:09 What power?
04:10 Power of voodoo.
04:11 Voodoo?
04:12 You do.
04:12 Do what?
04:13 Remind me of the babe.
04:14 I was a fan of his music.
04:17 I'm not sure I was cool enough to really understand the extent of his genius and who he was,
04:24 which is probably a good thing, 'cause I probably would have been really intimidated working with him.
04:28 But I became a super fan.
04:29 I love the way he interacted with the crew and the kind of juxtaposition of those characters that he created
04:36 and the way he presented himself on set, which was he'd sit on the camera dolly and joke with the crew
04:41 and was so convivial and easygoing.
04:44 And he seemed to have put a lot of effort into making people comfortable,
04:47 and I really appreciated that in him.
04:50 I love you, Harry.
04:52 You make me feel like a person.
04:59 Like a me.
05:02 I'm beautiful.
05:05 I really wanted to do that film.
05:07 I mean, there was so much to do in it.
05:10 You know, it was explosive.
05:12 I thought the script was really wild and creative, and I thought Darren was really interesting.
05:17 I hadn't had an opportunity to play a character like that before.
05:20 Her life was so far away from my own, and it felt like an opportunity to really use my imagination
05:26 and try and build something, build a character.
05:31 And I spent a lot of time with people who were very generous with me,
05:35 who really shared their experiences with me, and I just really wanted to throw myself at it
05:41 with kind of everything that I had to try and depict it as truthfully as I could.
05:46 Well, you have to do something, Harry.
05:48 I mean, it's your fault that we don't have something for the morning.
05:51 What are you talking about?
05:52 You were all hot in the biscuit to get off last night.
05:55 That is such bullshit.
05:56 You didn't have to, okay?
05:58 And we could have had something right now.
05:59 What was I supposed to do?
06:00 I'm going to sit around and watch you push off and knock on myself?
06:03 Just don't put it all on me, okay?
06:05 There were so many creative people who were making really bold choices.
06:10 That whole atmosphere was one of sort of risk-taking, and it was quite pioneering.
06:15 It felt like what they were doing with the music, what they were doing with the sets,
06:18 what Maddie was doing with the camera, that was the atmosphere, that was the milieu
06:21 of everyone kind of taking a risk and putting themselves out there
06:24 and really committing fully to that project.
06:28 Where the hell you think I've been, huh?
06:33 Where's the score?
06:35 Well, we had a little bit of a problem, see?
06:38 I mean, everything was going good, and then some dumbass junkie--
06:42 Did what?
06:44 Some dumbass junkie did what?
06:46 You mean you fucked it up?
06:47 I don't enjoy working from a negative place personally,
06:50 or to create tension or drama in my own life,
06:53 or actually to use direct substitution.
06:58 It was a tricky time.
07:01 Jared and I have talked about it since.
07:03 It was funny.
07:05 I don't know what it was, but there was a scene where we had a fight.
07:09 He was supposed to go and score, and he hasn't, and I'm kind of furious,
07:12 and I'm really withdrawing, and I've kind of torn up the apartment a little bit.
07:16 I remember when we shot that, we actually had an argument.
07:20 I can't remember how it played out or how it happened.
07:23 But he's great, and he did a great--you know, he was great in the movie,
07:26 and we've since made up.
07:28 It's extremely hot in here with the windows closed
07:30 and extremely noisy with them open,
07:33 so I was wondering if there's any way you could, I don't know,
07:36 maybe work someplace else for about 45 minutes?
07:39 Not a problem.
07:40 Thank you so much.
07:42 Let it break.
07:43 Do it.
07:44 When I read it and auditioned for the part, I thought,
07:47 "Oh, God, just if only I could get a part like this.
07:50 I'll never ask for a good one again.
07:52 This one's so great."
07:54 It was really clear to me that it was a special part and a special project.
07:59 You know, Ron and Russell and screenplay and story.
08:03 I was really excited to be part of it.
08:05 It doesn't happen all the time.
08:07 There are few and far between, I think, projects that you find
08:10 that have all of those elements going for them.
08:13 [Screaming]
08:15 Charles was watching. He was okay.
08:17 There's no one here!
08:19 There was a scene in the movie where he's almost drowned our baby,
08:23 and the stakes are quite high, and we shot the beginning of the scene
08:26 in one location.
08:28 I come down the stairs, and we resume it,
08:31 and it was in an entirely different location,
08:33 so filmed nowhere near the time when we filmed the first half of the scene.
08:36 We had established a kind of emotional state
08:39 that I kind of had to pick up as I came down,
08:42 and it was really strange. It was a strange challenge,
08:44 because I feel like with scenes that have a very--
08:47 have, like, emotionally high stakes,
08:49 I try not to, like, set particular expectations
08:52 of what they're going to look like.
08:54 Like, "Oh, I need to be crying in this scene
08:56 because she's really upset."
08:58 You know, I sort of think about where that character is
09:01 without that kind of external expectations.
09:03 But in this instance, there was an external expectation placed on it
09:07 because it was a direct cut.
09:09 It was an interesting challenge with no ramp-up
09:11 to, like, have to start a scene at sort of, like,
09:13 at a certain pitch right in the middle.
09:15 I remember that feeling tricky.
09:17 My father left us this house. He left it to me and my brother.
09:20 You should be telling these things to the bureaucrats
09:22 at the county tax office. They have made a mistake, not I.
09:24 Well, they said they would give you your money back,
09:26 and I know you've put that deck on.
09:28 I'm sure they'd repay you for that.
09:30 I'm sorry, miss, but I have nothing more to say to anyone.
09:33 Why should I be penalized for their incompetence? Tell me that.
09:35 You should sue them for enough money to buy ten homes.
09:38 One of the things that I find most interesting about being an actor
09:41 is spending time with characters who do make choices
09:44 that feel so different and that I don't understand.
09:46 I love that process of, you know, having to make sense of it,
09:51 of having to imagine that motivation, how that person grew up,
09:55 what that person experienced, for whatever choice they make
09:59 to make sense to them, you know, or to be inevitable for them.
10:03 She made so many bad choices.
10:05 I can't really pick one, to be honest with you.
10:09 You know, that's kind of the joy and beauty of it,
10:11 is trying to get underneath that and find the key
10:14 to what makes that behavior make perfect sense
10:18 from that character's point of view.
10:20 Au revoir. Et bienvenue en Amérique!
10:25 What just happened?
10:29 I just really liked your music and didn't know how to express it.
10:34 I loved the story. I thought it was really moving.
10:36 I thought he did a great job writing the script.
10:38 We're very aligned creatively.
10:40 I felt obviously incredibly comfortable and safe with him.
10:44 I felt like I could come up with ideas and propose things
10:48 without risk of thinking, like, "Oh, he's gonna think this is really stupid or crazy."
10:52 Like, you know?
10:53 So that was really fun, feeling completely uninhibited.
10:56 Like, there was one scene, we didn't shoot it that way.
10:58 I was like, "It just doesn't make sense that these two people have just had sex
11:02 and she's sitting and talking to him, but she's put her clothes back on,
11:05 so why don't I just sit in the chair naked and we have the conversation?"
11:08 And he's like, "Okay, let's try it."
11:11 And I don't think I would have done that with anyone else.
11:14 We did it, and then he looked at it and he's like,
11:16 "It is so fucking distracting that you're sitting in that chair naked talking.
11:20 We can't do this. You need to put something on."
11:22 And I was like, "Okay."
11:24 So that was definitely different, feeling like,
11:26 "I can try this, and if it doesn't work,
11:28 we're going to do it or not do it for the right reasons."
11:32 - Penny. - Too late.
11:34 - What? - You were about to ask me what time I get off.
11:37 Don't give me that look.
11:43 I'm not giving you any look. I swear.
11:46 Tom Cruise, as a filmmaker, is extraordinary.
11:49 He's always working. He's always thinking about the project.
11:51 He's always thinking about how it can be better,
11:53 how he can adjust the script.
11:54 Is the scene right? Is the writing right?
11:56 It's a very focused process. I really enjoyed it.
11:59 Overboard! Overboard! Overboard! Overboard!
12:05 Overboard! Overboard! Overboard!
12:09 Great to see you, Pete!
12:11 We'd have meetings about the script and talk through it
12:14 and read through it and make adjustments.
12:16 And then sometimes we would shoot the scene and then reshoot a scene.
12:21 It felt really important to make the most of the limited screen time that we had.
12:25 So my character, Penny, is a sailor.
12:28 Originally, we shot a sailing scene in San Diego.
12:32 It was beautiful. Beautiful boat. We saw dolphins.
12:36 It was great. We did the scene.
12:38 We're sitting out there and Tom goes, "No. This is boring."
12:43 I was like, "Oh."
12:45 And he was like, "It's not fast enough. It's not cool enough.
12:49 It's not fast enough. I want Penny to be, like, really strong."
12:53 And he was right. We went to San Francisco where it's super windy.
12:58 And it was an entirely different experience for, like, getting soaked in the wind.
13:03 It's so much better.
13:05 And like I was saying, we don't have that much time with those characters
13:09 to establish who they are.
13:11 So a gesture like that, like, "Okay, she's sailing a boat and it's calm and lovely,"
13:15 versus, "She's sailing this boat and it's this really high-octane, adrenaline experience."
13:21 I think it was a great choice.
13:24 I will admit to a certain curiosity about the path not taken.
13:30 Tonight each of you made a choice that determined which version of my show you experienced.
13:35 You should still have the cards that you didn't choose.
13:38 They're also tickets, and you can use them to return at any point during the next month
13:43 and take a different path.
13:45 Maybe find out if the grass really is greener.
13:47 It was really fun. I thought about what her core characteristics were.
13:51 I thought in every iteration she was someone who was really warm, optimistic,
13:57 who sort of reached towards happiness.
14:00 Then I thought about, you know, how she physically presented herself in this world
14:06 and how she might present herself differently in other worlds
14:09 where she had lived a different life and had made different choices.
14:12 The second version of Daniela that we meet, she's single.
14:15 She never was married. She didn't have kids.
14:17 She never suffered the intense loss that Daniela won, suffered.
14:21 So that was really fun to think about how that would mark a person.
14:24 I still have so much stuff to figure out, and I feel like I still have so much to learn in my work.
14:31 But that's kind of the fun.
14:33 Like, I don't know, would I go back and tell myself, like, "Oh, avoid this," and try and do this sooner?
14:39 And part of the joy later is having to figure it out, you know, the process of figuring it out along the way.
14:47 [music]