Thrust into the spotlight as a model at age 10, Connelly’s start in the industry was far from her childhood dream job. “That was not my idea. I was very shy. And it was not something that I ever would have thought of doing. [Mum] kind of got me into that,” says Connelly. “Performing from such a young age, it kind of has an impact on the way one grows up and develops. There’s a lot of personal exposure... you’re putting yourself in a film, you are the product. And if that’s something that isn’t initiated by oneself as a kid, I’m sure you can imagine it can be a little uncomfortable.”
After four decades’ experience, I wonder how she feels towards her profession. Is it better for actresses in the industry? “I think that the work environment has definitely changed for the better,” she replies. “That’s great; that’s fantastic. There’s a lot more awareness, sensitivity and focus on roles for women, which is wonderful. There’s probably still more work to do but we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”
So is it safer for women on sets now? “That’s what I was referring to,” she continues. “I think it’s hugely different [from] when I was a youth. [But] it’s hard for me to say, because I’m now 51. So I’m treated differently on a movie set by virtue of my age at this point. But for example, shooting intimate scenes ... the director would say [in the past], ‘OK, here’s the thing, and close set and roll cameras, and you guys just go for it.’ They weren’t even treated as scenes. Now there are intimacy coordinators who mediate and make sure everyone is comfortable.”
Despite her difficult start as a young actor in Hollywood, in the early 2000s Connelly finally found her groove… and love. During the filming of A Beautiful Mind, the actor first met her now-husband Paul Bettany. At the time, she and Bettany were in other relationships, and kept a respectful distance. Six months later they were together, though didn’t reunite on screen until 2009’s Charles Darwin drama Creation. He’d also direct her in the 2014 homeless drama Shelter, but there was nothing “calculated” about their collaborations. “I think that those opportunities just kind of presented themselves, to be honest with you,” she argues. “But I’d love to work with him again. I think he’s a great actor, and we have a good time working together. He did a great job as a director as well.”
Now she’s about to top it all with Top Gun: Maverick, the exhilarating, fist-pumping sequel to the 1986 Tom Cruise classic about daredevil pilots in the US Navy. “Everything about this movie has been kind of extraordinary,” she says.
Connelly was 15 when the original was released – the very same year she co-starred with Bowie in the fantasy film Labyrinth. “I remember being blown away by the [Top Gun] flying sequences. I remember feeling like somehow – and I don’t think I thought this way about movies at the time – that Tom Cruise created such an iconic character out of the gate.”
The sequel casts her as Penny Benjamin, referenced in the original as a former flame to Cruise’s cocky pilot Maverick. Now a single mother, Penny runs The Hard Deck, a bar near the naval base where Maverick returns to tutor a new generation of pilots on an insane mission. “She’s definitely someone who seeks out adventure and has a real zest for life,” says Connelly, who took sailing lessons and even got airborne in a P-51 Mustang with Cruise. “She has an adventurous spirit; there’s a reason why they keep cycling in and out of each other’s lives.”
Connelly gets a “chaste” love scene with Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick – all very PG-13, as they say in the US. “I was sitting next to my son in the screening [when it came on]. And he goes, ‘Oh, boy’ and I go, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to be fine!’”
Her two boys, Kai and Stellan have both recently flown the nest. After dropping Kai off at Yale, Connelly confesses, “I sobbed the entire way. And then I sobbed the entire night. I went to sleep crying, and woke up in the morning crying and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is not normal!’ I was bereft!”
With a near 40-year career under her belt and successfully seeing two kids off to college, the actor shows no sign of slowing down. Due to shoot an independent movie, before heading back to film the fourth season of Snowpiercer later this year, the humble Hollywood hero is at the top of her game.
Top Gun: Maverick is in cinemas now. Pick up a copy of the July issue of marie claire Australia to read the full story.
Jennifer Connelly wears Louis Vuitton F/W 22 throughout.
