Jennifer Connelly says that she had no choice, In each interview she gives, She is in charge of making it clear that it was not her who chose to follow the path she has been traveling for more than 40 years.
“I started working when I was so young that I wasn't making my own decisions. It was my mother who encouraged my career and took me to all the castings, only when I was older was I able to become independent," the actress recently recalled in a note with The Magazine.
The New Yorker with the perfect face and deep gaze is not complaining either: it would be hypocritical to deny her life as a Hollywood star. However, she seeks to expose how harsh the movie industry can be on child prodigies. "In my childhood, I lived through circumstances that were very tense, I felt absolutely objectified," she confessed in another interview.
Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie in Labyrinth, by Jim Henson
And it is that although it stands out that he had very enriching experiences –such as when he participated in Once Upon a Time in America, by Sergio Leone, or when he had to share the screen with David Bowie in Labyrinth, one of the most emblematic films of the 80s- There are others that I would rather forget. In Zona Caliente, an erotic film in which she worked with Don Johnson -with whom it was even rumored that she had a love affair- She was just 19 years old.
“One can end up feeling terribly exposed in the film industry. I understand those who, being young, looked for a place that made them feel safe. Each one finds security in a different place: in the family, in faith, or in drugs. My youth refuge was the study ”, she recounted to recall her time at Yale.
Top Gun and the meeting of two icons of the 80s
Three decades later, and already positioned as a renowned actress thanks to her roles in Requiem for a Dream –the cult film directed by Darren Aronofsky– and A Brilliant Mind –a Ron Howard film that won her an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best actress–, Connelly returns to the cinema with Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the eighties classic that opens on May 26.
In it, she will play Penny Benjamin, owner of a bar frequented by Air Force pilots and who, of course, manages to steal the heart of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, the character who catapulted Tom Cruise to fame at the beginning of his career. Although they were two icons of the 80s and 90s, this is the first time Jennifer has worked with Nicole Kidman's ex, whom she defined as "extraordinary and disciplined."
Of course, the meeting of Cruise and Connelly on the screen did not go unnoticed by anyone and even brought some controversy. In the networks, for example, many wondered why, if they had summoned a large part of the original cast for this second part, they overlooked Kelly McGuillis, the actress who played Charlie Blackwood in the first Top Gun, the instructor who drove him crazy of love to the young pilot.
It was McGuillis herself who was in charge of dispelling all doubts. “I am old, I am fat and I look according to my age. And the movie is not about any of that. I'd rather feel good about my skin and who I am at my age than value all those other things," the 62-year-old told.
Director Joseph Kosinski, on the other hand, denied this version and clarified that both the absence of McGuillis and Meg Ryan are due exclusively to the fact that "they were not the stories that were being considered." "I didn't want each story to constantly look back, but rather introduce some new characters," he clarified, thus justifying the addition of other actors to the cast.
Connelly, who from her private life is only known to have three children and has been married since 2003 to fellow actor Paul Bettany, did not comment on the exclusion of her colleague, but she did refer on several occasions to the passage of time and the pressure that Hollywood exerts on the stars -especially on women- so as not to age.
Very sure of herself, Connelly made it clear that the passage of time does not affect her. In Top Gun: Maverick, we can even see her in a scene with Cruise, scenes that Hollywood almost always reserves for much younger actors. As she stated, age was not a problem for either of them when they undressed in front of the camera. she said a few days ago, in dialogue with Variety. They have a very tender relationship. They share a moment in bed talking and that says as much about their relationship as the scene that is the preamble. Clearly, they have some unresolved issues between them, and she handles them with humor and joy. I feel like she is someone who is positive and moving towards happiness.”
With her beauty still intact – as she recently demonstrated on the red carpet in Cannes – she often makes it clear that not only is she not worried about being a 50-year-old woman, but she also enjoys that in her maturity she is already more clear about “what things they are really important in life.”
