MARIE CLAIRE: Jennifer Connelly - What Turns Her On

Jennifer Connelly in Prada

The December 2008 issue of Marie Claire magazine features an editorial of Jennifer Connelly playfully modeling an assortment of little black dresses. In it, the actress shares what turns her on, well besides her British actor husband, Paul Bettany.


This much we know about Jennifer Connelly: She's devastatingly pretty. She won an Oscar for her work in 2001's A Beautiful Mind. Her latest, The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Keanu Reeves, opens this month; He's Just Not That Into You premieres in February. She has two sons — Kai, 11, and Stellan, 5 — and she's married to British actor Paul Bettany. About to turn 39, she is the face of the Balenciaga campaign. And she is remarkably private and classy for someone who works in Hollywood.



But what tickles Jennifer Connelly? What gets those green eyes glinting? We had to know, so we decided to just ask. Jennifer Connelly, what do you love?



Pink Lady apples. "Three a day. I eat so many apples, it's stupid."


Speaking Italian. "It's so much fun. It's such a crisp and bright-sounding language."



Vodka. "Chilled. No ice. Just a tiny bit of orange juice, or with soda and lime."



Family photographs. "Right over my bed I've stuck on a black-and-white photo-booth strip of Paul, Kai, and Stelli, and another of Kai and Stelli with my dad." (Connelly's father passed away in September.)



Attending Comic-Con, the comics convention, with Keanu Reeves last July. "It was like going with a Beatle. Women had little handwritten signs that said, 'I love you, Keanu.' And he'd just open his mouth, and they'd start screaming."


Visiting Africa's Kalahari Desert with her family. "We all walked away from each other and lay down on the sand. It's crusty, like salt flats. We were just silent for a while."


Home. "I became a mom before I became a wife. When I had kids, I felt I had a home like I'd never experienced before."



A hot LBD "You can just fold it up and throw it in your bag. It always works."



Making He's Just Not That Into You. "It's about being a girlfriend. A lot of my scenes were with other women. I liked that."



Nick Cave, Cat Power, Vampire Weekend, the Arctic Monkeys.


Doing crafts. "I have a Bedazzler! The last time we whipped it out was for Stellan's birthday. I sewed capes for all the kids, and then they decorated them with fabric, paint, jewels, and buttons."


Running. "Six to 10 miles on trails through the woods at our place up in the country."


Building forts.



Scooby-Doo. "I love that he's an American hero who is absolutely, 100 percent cowardly."








See behind-the-scenes photos of Jennifer Connelly and read the rest of this article in the December issue of Marie Claire — on sale now!

source: Marie Claire, photos: Ruven Afanador