J ennifer Connelly did not want to be an actress. When she was ten a friend of her parents suggested she should model, kick-starting a career that quickly expanded: she celebrated her 12th birthday in Rome on the set of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. “I wasn’t a cinephile, it wasn’t like I had aspiration to be a great actress — that was not even on my radar … I wanted to be a vet,” she says.

We are talking over Zoom, Connelly head to toe in grey and black Louis Vuitton leisurewear, looking sleekly groomed and preternaturally gorgeous despite having just got out of the shower. She is seated by a window of the Brooklyn townhouse she shares with her husband,

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