Jennifer Connelly did not want to be an actress. When
she was ten a friend of her parents suggested she
should model, kick-starting a career that quickly
expanded: she celebrated her 12th birthday in Rome on
the set of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America.
“I wasn’t a cinephile, it wasn’t like I had aspiration to
be a great actress — that was not even on my radar ...
I wanted to be a vet,” she says.
Oscar-winner, fashion pin-up and now star of the big
Top Gun sequel: at 51 Jennifer Connelly is at the peak of her
powers. But forget Hollywood — she’s happiest dancing
with her kids in the kitchen, she tells Gavanndra Hodge
Photographs Carin Backoff Styling Jaime Kay Waxman
We are talking over Zoom, Connelly head to toe in
grey and black Louis Vuitton leisurewear, looking sleekly
groomed and preternaturally gorgeous despite havingjust got out of the shower. She is seated by a window of
the Brooklyn townhouse she shares with her husband,the English actor Paul Bettany, and their children,
Stellan, 18, and Agnes, 10. Her son from a previousrelationship, Kai, 24, now lives in Los Angeles.