Jennifer Connelly Says She Experienced A 'Complete Shutdown' During 2002 Oscars Speech
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For many actors, winning an Academy Award can feel like the pinnacle of a Hollywood career after years of hustle. Jennifer Connelly, however, has a somewhat foggy recollection of the hard-won achievement.
Appearing on “The Drew Barrymore Show” Tuesday to promote her AppleTV+ series “Dark Matter,” the actor said she experienced a “complete shutdown” after winning Best Supporting Actress for “A Beautiful Mind” in 2002.
“I was so nervous and overwhelmed,” she said. “I remember looking out at that audience full of all those extraordinary people, and then just seeing it say ’40 seconds’ and, you know, because there’s a monitor that tells you how long you have to speak.”
“And I saw it, and I think I just, like, it’s just a complete shock,” she added. “I was kind of floating, gliding into it arriving there.”
Connelly, who made her acting debut in 1984 in the crime thriller “Once Upon a Time in America,” credited her late father, Gerard Connelly, with helping to calm her nerves at the 2002 Academy Awards.
“He came with me, which was really special for me,” she said. “So he tethered me somewhat.”
Watch Jennifer Connelly’s 2002 Oscars speech below.
Connelly had a similar take on her Oscars triumph in a 2003 interview with “Today.” Though she appeared calm on the telecast, she said, “I had a bit of the deer in the headlights syndrome.”
Appearing on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” earlier this month, Connelly looked back on her early experiences as a child actor, noting that show business “wasn’t something that I had pursued.”
“It was my mom’s idea, and I started working,” she said. “Then at a certain point, when I got a little bit older, I was like, ‘Do I really wanna do this? This isn’t what I chose for my life.’”
“Well, here I am, so obviously I re-chose it,” she added. “But after some investigation and really thinking about it.”
