Ardan Stories

Jennifer Connelly walks us through her legendary career, discussing her roles in 'Once Upon a Time in America,' 'Labyrinth,' 'Requiem for a Dream,' 'A Beautiful Mind,' 'Shelter,' 'Top Gun: Maverick,' 'Dark Matter' and more.

'Dark Matter' is now streaming on Apple TV+.

00:00 Jennifer Connelly

00:36 Once Upon a Time in America

02:52 Labyrinth 

04:55 Requiem for a Dream

07:33 A Beautiful Mind

09:21 House of Sand and Fog

10:21 Shelter

11:32 Top Gun: Maverick

13:31 Dark Matter

Jennifer Connelly talks about working with Blake Crouch on Dark Matter, what she thinks her career path would have been if she wasn't acting and her children's hilarious pranks on her and her husband.

A man is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Amid the mind-bending landscape of lives he could've lived, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from a most terrifying foe: himself.

Starring Joel Edgerton, Jimmi Simpson, Jennifer Connelly, Dayo Okeniyi, Alice Braga, Oakes Fegley

Directed By Jakob Verbruggen, Logan George, Alik Sakharov, Celine Held, Roxann Dawson

Produced By Chris Evans, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Jules Daly, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick

Executive Produced By Blake Crouch, David Manpearl, Jakob Verbruggen, Matt Tolmach, Don Kurt, Joel Edgerton

A former child actress seeking enlightenment at a retreat led by a spiritual leader navigates the close but turbulent relationship with her daughter.

“Dark Matter” debuts globally on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. 

Executive producer, showrunner and writer Blake Crouch attends the world premiere of Apple TV+'s “Dark Matter” at the Hammer Museum on April 29, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. 

“Dark Matter” debuts globally on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, May 8, 2024.

you know I got to see this movie the

other day with one of The Producers on

the show and we went and and saw the

film it is extraordinarily gorgeous I

mean this was shot on location in Africa

is that right very beautiful we were

filming in South Africa and Mozambique

and uh it was it's just gorgeous down

there and I was also lucky enough to

travel to Botswana right on some time

off and so you got you've got a little

down time and did you go on a safari

because people people tell but that's

one thing I've always wanted to to do is

go to Safari yeah I had wanted to as

well and we had my husband Paul was

there with me and we had our turn on the

show many times has been on the show

before and uh we uh we did we went on so

far which is an incredible holiday with

kids I have to say if a bit

nerve-wracking initially really you

think it's good to take kids on Safari

well it's beautiful I mean it's

beautiful it's an incredible experience

it's nerve-wracking in the beginning

because you're in an open top

Land Rover and there are lions and

leopards and cheetahs and all sorts of

dangerous animals see to them it looks

like an ice cream truck is coming

through you know

won't draw too much attention to how

tasty he is right right in the in the

car but it was it was good we had a our

sort of most tense moment with an

elephant actually an elephant with a

lion or you know you think it'd be the

lion or the Tiger but the elephants can

be dangerously scared when they're in

must which is the state that they get

into the Bulls get into when they

basically are so horny that they want to

mate with any female that they see

that's a great that's that's a great

word must I simply must

or they want to fight every male that

they come across and so we came across

an elephant and must and uh he thought

we looked appealing uh and uh all of you

together in a truck looks somehow like a

female elephant to him it's hot and uh

he came charging at us with his huge um

under trunk

ready to go I love the term under trunk

as well

the kids are really it's it's uh I can

imagine that's Mom and we uh we didn't

stick around long enough to see if he

thought we were male or female we

thought we should just flame I think

when a giant elephant's charging you

with his under trunk yeah it's time to

it's time to go it's time to hit the

road are they making noises that sound

like they do actually they make they

have the glands are going and they have

like uh they're wet kind of

yeah and they make noises and right yeah

it's you know it's uh it's uh sorry it's

interesting it raises a lot of questions

with kids you know and eyebrows and

questions oh the kids were with us they

were asking questions and also you know

you find yourself like at four o'clock

in the morning uh getting really excited

when the ranger hears on his

walkie-talkie that there are two lions

mating somewhere so

um you know you start rushing across the

buttswan in Wilderness you know to get

there before it's over and you start

thinking God I'm my kids are are you

know mating is basically a veterinarian

for

having sex yeah and

[Applause]

basically you know I'm where you know

Paul and I are thinking it's Dawning on

us that we're basically we will soon be

taking our children to a late night

Drive-In live animal sex show yeah you

know so it sounds like they're they're

encouraging that at the at the at the

park they're they're waking you up and

saying two cheetahs are going out let's

go let's go let's go let's go and they

even have a a red filter that they put

over the flashlight so they're bathed

and you know so it's not to break the

mood or anything they're bathed in this

red light and I think would you find

that your kids then later on Were

Somehow affected by not only the

elephant you know charging you in must

but seeing these animals mating were

your kids asking a lot of questions were

they behaving differently later on when

you got back well um

our younger one stellen has uh he's kind

of into Power Rangers and he has this

Lego type um

Power Ranger guy that you build put

together and it has an aerial that's

supposed to go on his shoulder that he

insists on

the elephant connection all right well

we're going to take a little break we

have a lot to talk about uh more with

Jennifer Connelly in just a second

In this interview from 2006, Jennifer Connelly talks about Blood Diamond and her character in the movie.

Movies in this Ranking:

10. Stuck in Love. (2012) (00:27)

9. Alita: Battle Angel (2019) (01:25)

8. Labyrinth (1986) (02:24)

7. House of Sand and Fog (2003) (03:14)

6. Little Children (2006) (04:12)

5. Dark City (1998) (05:08)

4. Only the Brave (2017) (06:07)

3. Blood Diamond (2006)(07:07)

2. A Beautiful Mind (2001) (08:04)

1. Requiem for a Dream (2000) (09:53)