Since debuting in Once Upon A Time In America 21 years ago Jennifer Connelly has matured from ingénue into fully fledged film star. Juvenile roles in films such as Labyrinth gave her cult status, while diverse adult roles have come in The Rocketeer, Higher Learning, Dark City and Requiem For A Dream.
She won an Oscar for her performance in A Beautiful Mind, and followed this with leading roles in Hulk and The House of Sand & Fog. Married to actor Paul Bettany, she is the mother to 7 year old Kai and 1 year old Stellan.
In Dark Water - Walter Salles' American financed remake of Hideo Nakata's Japanese hit - she plays Dahlia Williams. A single mother tormented by demons from her own past, she endures a new nightmare after moving with daughter Ceci (Ariel Grade) to a New York apartment which houses a terrible secret of its own.
How well did you know the original Dark Water?
"I had heard people saying this film that was really, really great. They said that I should go to see it, but I didn't get around to it. I watched it after I read this script, and thought it was a great film, really moving and really frightening. I was sold on this right after seeing it."
What with this and The House of Sand & Fog you seem to be specialising in characters in crisis, don't you?
"They're both complicated characters who are struggling with their lives. But they're well written, complex characters in stories that I thought were interesting. Maybe a comedy would be an interesting departure for my next film. I tend to get offered a lot of drug addict parts, women on the verge, so I think I'm going to do a comedy although I'd better not do a real bomb. I'd better try and be careful about it, otherwise they'll say 'see, I told you she was dark!'."
What effect has your Oscar win had on your career?
"I get offered more films, but it hasn't really changed me personally. In terms of how I see myself and my career I still think that I've got lots to do and lots to learn. I wish I got offered more things that I felt passionate about and that I really want to do. If I think about films that are released there are only a few really special ones each year that I want to go and see. So choosing scripts is like that, wading through and reading them."
Did you have any reservations about doing the Hollywood remake of a Japanese classic?
"I thought about it, but then I'm a fan of the original film as well and I was curious to see how this would be. And we were doing our version of it out of respect rather than disrespect. I think if we were trying to mimic it, or weren't respectful of it or really changed the tone of it that would be one thing. But while it is different in some ways where it is similar to the original Dark Water is that balance it strikes between having emotional depth and being a thought provoking film, while also hopefully quite scary too."
As a mum yourself it must have been quite a powerful thing to recreate the maternal bond with screen daughter Ariel Gade.
"I thought it was really important to make that relationship strong and convincing, because with a film like this you need to ground it in reality first. If you're going to float past limits of reason it has to be anchored somewhere."
How easy was it to establish the bond between you both?
"We spent a lot of time together in rehearsals. Walter was really smart in setting up time for us together before we started shooting. Not only in terms of going through scenes, but in being in the locations. She would talk about what it felt like being in New York , being away from San Diego , how she felt about her grandma, moving houses and her new puppy."
Was she carefully protected from the more scary aspects of the story?
"If you look closely at it you'll see that there's nothing disturbing that she comes into contact with. Except perhaps for the drowning scene. The only thing that was difficult for her was going underwater. But she and Perla, the other little girl in the scene, were friends so for them it was like playing. Ariel spent a lot of time in swimming pools learning to swim underwater and getting comfortable with that. That was the hardest thing for her to do, but it was done in a way that the issue was really the water and not the content of the scene. Walter spent a lot of time thinking about what he would and wouldn't allow them to do, and what he would and wouldn't film. He was really delicate with that, and she was very well protected."
How has motherhood changed you, as a person?
"It changed everything for me. It changed the way I looked at everything. It made me more patient and more critical probably in terms of reading scripts and thinking about how I wanted to spend my time, especially when that meant the time away from my kids."
You spend several key scenes soaked to the skin - is it difficult to deliver a coherent performance when you're wet all the time?
"It was a tough movie to make because it was physical and there was a lot of stuff in the water and I am in almost every scene. But at worst the water was a minor nuisance, even that deluge we went through at the end of the film. They saved it until the end too. But they made it very comfortable, except for the first day when they had some problems with the water temperature - it was very cold! But after that they were really repentant. I had a hot tub on set, which was very nice. Paul and Stellan were in it most of the time."
Finally, what films scare you?
"I saw Dressed To Kill when I was really young and had a problem with elevators as a result, so I didn't watch scary films for a while after that. And When A Stranger Calls, that was quite bad. That whole 'the call is coming from inside the house, have you checked the children?', that's really bad. But now my grown up favourites are films like Rosemary's Baby and Don't Look Now."
|
