(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Fri 12 December 2025 12:30, UK
Jennifer Connelly initially had no interest in acting. The legend she is, she still somehow wound up landing her first role as a teenager in a certified classic like Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America.
I mean, how many people can say that with damn-near zero experience on the CV, they were able to land a role alongside Robert De Niro?
After Once Upon a Time in America, Connelly collaborated with another Italian filmmaker, only this time the movie was absolutely strange. She was cast in the lead role of Dario Argento’s supernatural horror film Phenomena, a beautifully bizarre tale of a boarding school girl who uses her psychic powers to communicate with insects.
Stunningly shot and accompanied by an original score from Argento’s most reliable collaborators, Goblin, the film is now highly regarded by fans of the giallo auteur, although at the time of its release, critics had mixed opinions. Some found it a little boring and slow to get off the ground, while others appreciated the simmering tension that accompanies the murder mystery element of the film, which sees a killer targeting students.
Regardless of the film’s reception, Connelly had a great time shooting it – even if her parents were hesitant to begin with. The premise is pretty damn bizarre, to say the least, and Argento was known for his blood-soaked films.
When asked about the film by BlackTree TV, she revealed, “I loved working with him, you know, I think on paper it was an unusual choice. I remember my parents were like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re offered this movie, and it’s kind of crazy, and you sleepwalk, and you witness a murder, and you can communicate with insects, and your best friend is a chimpanzee,’ and I was like, ‘I’m in.’”
Connelly couldn’t wait to lead such a strange film, and it proved to be an incredibly fruitful experience –even if she did get half of her finger bitten off by the chimpanzee during shooting. Luckily, she was rushed to hospital, where she had her finger sewn back on, but clearly that didn’t leave too much lasting trauma surrounding the film.
Instead, she just remembers the excitement of working with Argento in her first leading role. “‘I’m back in Italy? I’m in.’ I was like ‘I’m ready to go,’ and I had a great time. I had so much fun. People have asked me like, ‘Was it frightening? Was it disturbing?’ And I was like, ‘No, it was that we had a whale of a time, and Dario was so sweet, and I got to be back in Italy.’” Describing him as possessing a “mad vision”, she explained that she just “completely surrendered to it and had a great time.”
Following Phenomena, Connelly landed one of her defining roles in the David Bowie film Labyrinth, which emerged the following year, and it’s likely thanks to Argento’s giallo that she was able to secure a part in the fantastical film.
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