The real Jennifer Connelly fans have always known that on top of being one of the most gorgeous people on Earth she is also a brilliant actor. But it took until her Oscar win for A Beautiful Mind that people finally took notice of her.
Her latest flick, Dark Water, is a remake of the Japanese horror film of the same name. Connelly plays Dahlia Williams who is newly separated with a new job and a new apartment. She moves into a new apartment with her only daughter. The apartment seems to take on a life of its own. Mysterious noises, persistent leaks of dark water, and strange happenings cause her imagination to run wild, sending her on a puzzling and mystifying pursuit to find out who is behind the endless mind games.
Dark Water opens July 8
Daniel Robert Epstein: This is your first horror film since you made Phenomena with Dario Argento.
Jennifer Connelly: Yes it is, though I'm reluctant to call it a horror film. It's more of a psychological thriller and a ghost story. To me I associate a horror film with more gore like slasher films. There's no blood here.
DRE: Your character in Dark Water suffers from migraines, do you at all?
JC: No I don't. For research I just talked to people about their experiences and learned about their sensitivity to light and sound. I took a little poll of people that I came across and I talked to a doctor.
For other research I watched a lot of scary films because I really had no vocabulary in the genre so I thought that I should acquire one. I went and watched two or three scary movies a night.
DRE: What were some of your favorites?
JC: Some of my favorites were Rosemary's Baby, Don't Look Now and The Shining. Then I approached it as I would any drama which is to say that I thought, Who is this woman? I asked myself tons of questions. What was her life like? In what way was the father abusive? What did she see in her husband and how did that breakup? I just tried to make choices so I went through the gamut and tried to make it as specific as possible down to the color of her toothbrush. I'd make those choices and then you can start building it out and then she starts to take shape.
DRE: Do you get scared easily?
JC: I think that I'm sort of your average bear except when it comes to like the first ten minutes of an airplane ride. About that I'm downright neurotic.
DRE: What do you do?
JC: I don't really do anything. I just try to grin and bear it. I just wait for the explosion and then when it doesn't come I'm fine and I enjoy the flight.
DRE: Did you have your new baby on the set?
JC: Yeah, I was still nursing him so he was on set everyday. But I've gotten quite used to that because when my older one was little he was on the set of Requiem for a Dream which really wasn't a family film either.
DRE: Do you ever carry a characters heavy baggage with you?
JC: It's nice to let it be someone else's baggage. What really gets under my skin is working on a project that I'm not happy with. It's torture for me and then unfortunately I make it torture for everyone around me. But I was really happy to work on this film. It was one of my favorite films to work on because it was just a great working relationship with [director] Walter Salles. I don't feel like I'm faking it when I'm doing the scene, but when we're done and we've got it, I let it go. Then I'm not her anymore.
DRE: Do you think this film with resonate more for people with children?
JC: I think that it will have a real resonance for people who are parents because I think that it's a thing that a lot of parents go through. People ask me, Do you think that this character is really crazy? I really don't. I think that this character is really broken but she is amazingly resilient and strong given where she's come from. I think that parents the world over struggle with some of the ghosts from their own childhood and despite their best intentions it affects how they are with their children.
I think this story is really poignant. It's a really moving and sophisticated story about this woman who has only found safety in this small family and she feels betrayed and let down. She wants to cling to her daughter that she recognizes she's going to have to let go of. She has to separate her love so ultimately she comes to embody pure, maternal love. It's quite an astounding journey.
DRE: What was it like working with Walter Salles since this is his first movie in English?
JC: I think it's beyond his nationality. Walter is one of the worldliest people I've ever met. I don't even want to guess how many languages he speaks fluently. He's singular and extraordinary. I think that he's a huge talent. I thought so before I worked with him and after working with him I can't tell you what a blessing it was. It felt like such a privilege to work with him everyday. I think that he's incredibly knowledgeable, but not at all jaded. He's still passionate. He's full of curiosity. That's a really rare combination.
DRE: Do you hate the sight of water now?
JC: I'm a huge fan of personal hygiene so I couldn't be turned off from water. I'm less fond of the black mold.
DRE: Since you were often wet in this film were you always cold?
JC: That bathroom sequence at the end of the film took a little while and it was cold. It's hard to keep a soundstage really warm and even if they tried to keep the water warm, in-between takes it gets cold very quickly with those soggy pajamas on. So they were very nice and they actually had a hot tub on set. They tortured me but they were very sweet.
DRE: How did they make the water look like that?
JC: I heard rumor that it was some ingredient found in Coca Cola.
DRE: What do you think of the trend of remakes?
JC: I like the original Dark Water and the original Ring. I think that this Dark Water is a very different type of film than the American Ring or the American Grudge because of Walter's interpretation. With Japanese horror films the threat is less often an aberration outside of the self coming to attack us. More often it's something that's more subtle that comes from within.
DRE: How did having children change you?
JC: I'm one of those people that was profoundly changed by having kids, especially my first son. Ive always wanted to be a mom since I was a kid. As a child I remember going to the playground and I'd ask the moms if I could look after their kids. I think it made me became more passionate for everything.
DRE: Do you and your husband Paul [Bettany] give each other career advice?
JC: Yeah, we do talk about work. I think that he's a really good actor which is great because it wouldn't be really sexy to be married to someone that you thought wasn't talented. We read scripts to each other.
DRE: Because of certain movies youve made you have a strong Goth following, have you met any of those fans?
JC: I think that my husband is one of those because he used to have a black Mohawk.
DRE: Whats the next movie youre doing?
JC: The next project is called Little Children. It's being directed by Todd Field who did In the Bedroom and it's based on a book by Tom Perrotta who wrote the novel Election was based on.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Her latest flick, Dark Water, is a remake of the Japanese horror film of the same name. Connelly plays Dahlia Williams who is newly separated with a new job and a new apartment. She moves into a new apartment with her only daughter. The apartment seems to take on a life of its own. Mysterious noises, persistent leaks of dark water, and strange happenings cause her imagination to run wild, sending her on a puzzling and mystifying pursuit to find out who is behind the endless mind games.
Dark Water opens July 8
Daniel Robert Epstein: This is your first horror film since you made Phenomena with Dario Argento.
Jennifer Connelly: Yes it is, though I'm reluctant to call it a horror film. It's more of a psychological thriller and a ghost story. To me I associate a horror film with more gore like slasher films. There's no blood here.
DRE: Your character in Dark Water suffers from migraines, do you at all?
JC: No I don't. For research I just talked to people about their experiences and learned about their sensitivity to light and sound. I took a little poll of people that I came across and I talked to a doctor.
For other research I watched a lot of scary films because I really had no vocabulary in the genre so I thought that I should acquire one. I went and watched two or three scary movies a night.
DRE: What were some of your favorites?
JC: Some of my favorites were Rosemary's Baby, Don't Look Now and The Shining. Then I approached it as I would any drama which is to say that I thought, Who is this woman? I asked myself tons of questions. What was her life like? In what way was the father abusive? What did she see in her husband and how did that breakup? I just tried to make choices so I went through the gamut and tried to make it as specific as possible down to the color of her toothbrush. I'd make those choices and then you can start building it out and then she starts to take shape.
DRE: Do you get scared easily?
JC: I think that I'm sort of your average bear except when it comes to like the first ten minutes of an airplane ride. About that I'm downright neurotic.
DRE: What do you do?
JC: I don't really do anything. I just try to grin and bear it. I just wait for the explosion and then when it doesn't come I'm fine and I enjoy the flight.
DRE: Did you have your new baby on the set?
JC: Yeah, I was still nursing him so he was on set everyday. But I've gotten quite used to that because when my older one was little he was on the set of Requiem for a Dream which really wasn't a family film either.
DRE: Do you ever carry a characters heavy baggage with you?
JC: It's nice to let it be someone else's baggage. What really gets under my skin is working on a project that I'm not happy with. It's torture for me and then unfortunately I make it torture for everyone around me. But I was really happy to work on this film. It was one of my favorite films to work on because it was just a great working relationship with [director] Walter Salles. I don't feel like I'm faking it when I'm doing the scene, but when we're done and we've got it, I let it go. Then I'm not her anymore.
DRE: Do you think this film with resonate more for people with children?
JC: I think that it will have a real resonance for people who are parents because I think that it's a thing that a lot of parents go through. People ask me, Do you think that this character is really crazy? I really don't. I think that this character is really broken but she is amazingly resilient and strong given where she's come from. I think that parents the world over struggle with some of the ghosts from their own childhood and despite their best intentions it affects how they are with their children.
I think this story is really poignant. It's a really moving and sophisticated story about this woman who has only found safety in this small family and she feels betrayed and let down. She wants to cling to her daughter that she recognizes she's going to have to let go of. She has to separate her love so ultimately she comes to embody pure, maternal love. It's quite an astounding journey.
DRE: What was it like working with Walter Salles since this is his first movie in English?
JC: I think it's beyond his nationality. Walter is one of the worldliest people I've ever met. I don't even want to guess how many languages he speaks fluently. He's singular and extraordinary. I think that he's a huge talent. I thought so before I worked with him and after working with him I can't tell you what a blessing it was. It felt like such a privilege to work with him everyday. I think that he's incredibly knowledgeable, but not at all jaded. He's still passionate. He's full of curiosity. That's a really rare combination.
DRE: Do you hate the sight of water now?
JC: I'm a huge fan of personal hygiene so I couldn't be turned off from water. I'm less fond of the black mold.
DRE: Since you were often wet in this film were you always cold?
JC: That bathroom sequence at the end of the film took a little while and it was cold. It's hard to keep a soundstage really warm and even if they tried to keep the water warm, in-between takes it gets cold very quickly with those soggy pajamas on. So they were very nice and they actually had a hot tub on set. They tortured me but they were very sweet.
DRE: How did they make the water look like that?
JC: I heard rumor that it was some ingredient found in Coca Cola.
DRE: What do you think of the trend of remakes?
JC: I like the original Dark Water and the original Ring. I think that this Dark Water is a very different type of film than the American Ring or the American Grudge because of Walter's interpretation. With Japanese horror films the threat is less often an aberration outside of the self coming to attack us. More often it's something that's more subtle that comes from within.
DRE: How did having children change you?
JC: I'm one of those people that was profoundly changed by having kids, especially my first son. Ive always wanted to be a mom since I was a kid. As a child I remember going to the playground and I'd ask the moms if I could look after their kids. I think it made me became more passionate for everything.
DRE: Do you and your husband Paul [Bettany] give each other career advice?
JC: Yeah, we do talk about work. I think that he's a really good actor which is great because it wouldn't be really sexy to be married to someone that you thought wasn't talented. We read scripts to each other.
DRE: Because of certain movies youve made you have a strong Goth following, have you met any of those fans?
JC: I think that my husband is one of those because he used to have a black Mohawk.
DRE: Whats the next movie youre doing?
JC: The next project is called Little Children. It's being directed by Todd Field who did In the Bedroom and it's based on a book by Tom Perrotta who wrote the novel Election was based on.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 14 of 14 COMMENTS
Though if you want a movie that kills parents, The Sweet Hereafter. Mine were in friggin' tears the whole way through.