At one time not so very long ago the name Jennifer Connelly was practically short-hand in the movie business for not so much also-ran as almost-ran. Bad career choices and (ironically) her movie-star good looks seemed at one time to have scuppered her chances of being taken seriously as an actor. Now, however with a number of critically acclaimed roles under her belt and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in A Beautiful Mind, she finally seems to have transcended a label she has long resented – as merely the woman with “curves in all the right places.”

Despite having an early career which would seem to point to precocious tendencies – including her role in Serge Leone’s Once Upon A Time in America at age 11 and a modelling career which saw a pre-teen Connelly grace everything from packets of tights to boxes of cornflakes – she has never been comfortable with the role of glamour girl. Indeed far from possessing the exhibitionist streak that typically defines her profession she finds reviews of the ‘phwoar’ variety – “A bit creepy. I feel uncomfortable being looked at like that.” She even considered quitting acting completely when her first adult roles in The Rocketeer and Mullholland Falls produced little by way of positive response, but plenty of comment from lecherous low-lifes, all too keen to discuss how her body had developed since her childhood roles in movies like Labyrinth. Naturally this situation made Connelly, an intelligent and gifted actress, feel trivialized – “I thought, I’m not cut out for this stuff, I just wanted to disappear.”

Almost inevitably her discomfort led her down a terrifically haphazard career path and Connelly spent her 20-something years drifting from one meritless role to another in such mediocre and unmemorable fare as Dark City, Waking the Dead and Far Harbour. She attended both Yale and Stanford colleges, but never finished either. Her restlessness changed however with the birth of Kai, Connelly’s four-year-old son with photographer David Dugan. The couple split up not long into the relationship, but she has since found happiness with American TV’s Sports Night star Josh Charles, her partner for two years now. Stability, maturity and motherhood have allowed Connelly,now 32, to become more contented under her own skin – “I’m much happier at this age. I’ve gone through all this different stages in my life, but since I became a mother I feel a level of commitment to everything that I could never have anticipated. I’m really happy about who I am, where I am for the first time.”

She also recognizes that her role in Darren Aronofsky’s devastating drama of drugs and despair Requiem for a Dream has been pivotal in her career revival – “I could point to this film or that and say that ‘people suddenly took me seriously’. I think it was a case of me taking myself seriously. Of believing in myself. Requiem was definitely a real turning point. It was very sad and uncomfortable and draining but it was also fantastic.”

Connelly’s soul-wrenching and courageous turn in Requiem impressed everyone who saw it, including director Ron Howard (Apollo 13, The Paper) who at the time was casting for A Beautiful Mind. The film, which stars Russell Crowe, is a quasi-fictionalized biopic of John Forbes Nash, charting his time as a Princeton scholar, his work for the American government and his eventual slide into schizophrenia. Though very much a sanitized and feel-good Shine-like affair which ignores the more difficult aspects of Nash’s life, such as his bi-sexuality, A Beautiful Mind is effective largely due to central performances by Crowe and Connelly who has already received a Golden Globe for her efforts as Nash’s long-suffering missus Alicia.”It was one of those rare scripts where I wanted to do it for every reason” says Connelly.” When I read the script I was crying. It was just such a blessng”

In keeping with her new work ethic, she met Alicia Nash as part of her preparations for the role. “What people forget is that she was a great mathematician in her own right and she still is a dynamic woman, really vibrant and alive – there I was boning up on my physics and all she wanted to know was whether Russell Crowe is really that sexy.”

Next up for Jennifer Connelly is a role in the most improbable movie project of the year – a movie adaptation of the Incredible Hulk by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Sense and Sensibility) due to start shooting this May. Connelly will play Betty Ross, daughter of the Hulk’s nemesis General Ross and love interest for the Hulk’s alter-ego Dr. Bruce Banner to be played by Eric Bana (Chopper). While comic book adaptations represent a notoriously wretched genre, Connelly is confident in Ang Lee’s impressive directorial abilities – “I asked him why he wanted to make the Hulk and he said ‘Well, it’s really a Greek tragedy. It’s a psychodrama.’ He talks about the rage that’s inside all of us, he talks about fathers and sons, using a heightened format to get at something really profound. So I’m hearing it like Brechtian theatre.”

Connelly’s new found credibility and her determination to stay away from roles of the “Oh my God, what was I thinking” variety should certainly ensure that she’s known for something other than her looks from now on.