netGirls Profile: Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former child model. Although she has been working in the film industry since she was a teenager and catapulted to fame on the basis of her appearances in films like Labyrinth and Career Opportunities, she did not receive critical acclaim for her work until the 2000 drama Requiem for a Dream, and the 2001 biopic A Beautiful Mind, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Arguably, Connelly's big breakthrough was the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream. Connelly starred alongside Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans as heroin addicts on the edge of a breakdown. The film firmly established her as a serious actress.

Connelly next starred in Ron Howard's film A Beautiful Mind (2001), essaying the role of Alicia Nash, the long-suffering wife of the brilliant, schizophrenic mathematician John Nash, (played by Russell Crowe.) The film was a critical and commercial success and earned Connelly an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her appearance in A Beautiful Mind led to a featured article in TIME magazine. [4]

Connelly starred in two films in 2003: Hulk and House of Sand and Fog. Hulk was something of a box office disappointment, but afforded Connelly the chance to work with noted director Ang Lee. 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. Connelly appeared in the 2005 horror film Dark Water, which was based on a Japanese film. She recently starred in an adaptation of the novel Little Children alongside Kate Winslet. Though her role as Kathy Adamson was very important in the novel, the director gave her character less screen time, instead focusing on the characters played by Winslet and Patrick Wilson. She also plays a journalist in Blood Diamond opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.

She turned down the leading role in The Ring due to scheduling conflicts. She also turned down the role of Katherine Thorn in The Omen because the original movie disturbed her. The role of Veronica in Heathers was written with her in mind but she turned it down. She also lost out at the last minute to Ione Skye in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything.

As of now she is on set filming Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix, planned for release in the fall of 2007.

Filmography
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Dario Argento's World of Horror (1985) (documentary)
Phenomena (1985)
Seven Minutes in Heaven (1985)
Labyrinth (1986)
Ballet (1988)
Some Girls (1988)
The Hot Spot (1990)
Career Opportunities (1991)
The Rocketeer (1991)
Of Love and Shadows (1994)
Higher Learning (1995)
Mulholland Falls (1996)
Far Harbor (1996)
Inventing the Abbotts (1997)
Dark City (1998)
Waking the Dead (2000)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Pollock (2000)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Hulk (2003)
House of Sand and Fog (2003)
Dark Water (2005)
Little Children (2006)
Blood Diamond (2006)
Upcoming:
Reservation Road (2007)