Jennifer Connelly Interview, Blood Diamond

MoviesOnline recently caught up with actress Jennifer Connelly and producers Paula Weinstein and Marshall Herskovitz at the Los Angeles Press Day for "Blood Diamond." The film, directed by Ed Zwick based on a screenplay written by Charles Leavitt from a story by Leavitt and C. Gaby Mitchell, is set against the backdrop of the chaos and civil war that enveloped 1990s Sierra Leone.

Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe , and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a Mende fisherman are both African, but their histories and circumstances are vastly different until their fates intersect in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond. Solomon, who has been taken from his family and forced to work in the diamond fields, finds the extraordinary gem and hides it at great risk, knowing if he is discovered, he will be killed instantly. For him, the diamond is the means by which he can save his wife and daughters from a life as refugees and rescue his son, Dia, from an even worse fate as a child soldier. Archer, who has made his living trading diamonds for arms, learns of Solomon's hidden stone while in prison for smuggling. He knows a diamond like this is a once-in-a-lifetime find and potentially his ticket out of Africa and away from the cycle of violence and corruption in which he has been a willing player.

Jennifer Connelly plays Maddy Bowen, an idealistic American journalist who comes to Sierra Leone to uncover the truth behind conflict diamonds and expose the complicity of diamond industry leaders who have chosen profits over principles. She seeks out Archer as a source for her article, but soon finds it is he who needs her even more. With Maddy's help, Archer and Solomon embark on a dangerous trek through rebel territory. Archer needs Solomon to find and recover the valuable pink diamond, while Solomon seeks something far more precious…his son. The film also stars Michael Sheen, Arnold Vosloo, David Harewood, Basil Wallace and introduces Kagiso Kuypers as Dia.

Paula Weinstein developed the screenplay with screenwriter Charles Leavitt and executive producer Len Amato. Producer Gillian Gorfil had initiated the project with C. Gaby Mitchell, who shares story credit with Leavitt. When they came on board the project, director Ed Zwick and producer Marshall Herskovitz continued to develop the story with Weinstein. Weinstein recalls, "I had made an anti-apartheid movie called 'A Dry White Season' many years ago and spent some time in South Africa . I knew about conflict diamonds, so the idea of making a film that showed their effect on the people of Africa was very significant to me."

"First of all," she continues, "we had great writers, and then the moment we got the script, I wanted to go to Ed Zwick. Ed and his partner, Marshall Herskovitz, have demonstrated a sensibility that I share; they are interested in stories about the real world, and they are committed to telling them truthfully. I knew they would not only embrace the material but be fearless in telling the whole story. A project like this needed someone with a creative backbone in order to get it made, and made right."

Herskovitz has had an association with Zwick dating back almost 30 years. He acknowledges that the subject matter of "Blood Diamond" posed a challenge to the filmmakers in balancing images that have the potential to, at once, confront and entertain an audience but adds that there is ample precedence for walking that tightrope. "It was hard for us to look at some of the material about Sierra Leone and the truly horrendous circumstances there and imagine them in a Hollywood film, but history has repeatedly shown us you can do films that deal with difficult subject matters for a wide audience when there is an important story to be told."

Here’s what Jennifer Connelly, Paula Weinstein, and Marshall Herskovitz had to tell us about shooting in South Africa and the challenges of making a film that is both politically engaging and entertaining:

Q: JENNIFER, WITH ALL THE HEAVY THINGS GOING ON IN THIS MOVIE, YOUR CHARACTER ACTUALLY GETS TO BE A LITTLE FLIRTATIOUS. IS THIS ONE OF THE LIGHTER ROLES YOU'VE GOTTEN TO PLAY LATELY?

JC: Yeah, in terms of her personality — I loved her spirit, her enthusiasm, her dedication, her unflinching commitment to her work and to trying to accomplish something good, but also her absolute zest and love of life and new experiences and adventure.

Q: JENNIFER, YOU HAVE A JOURNALIST FRIEND WHO WAS WRITING ABOUT CONFLICT DIAMONDS. I WONDER, DID SHE GIVE YOU ANYTHING CONCRETE REGARDING WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE THERE?

JC: She was incredibly helpful. I met a number of women who had actually been in Sierra Leone at that time writing stories on conflict diamonds, and I got all the information I possibly could from them, some of it quite superficial . . . really things like what kind of notebooks did you have, what shoes did you wear, who did you hang out with — practical everyday things that I could [use to] make specific character choices, what she should look like and that sort of thing. And then also just in terms of what she saw and she felt in that conflict and in being limited in terms of what she could do on a daily basis to help people that she saw.

Q: DOES THE FILM REFLECT WHAT YOU LEARNED FROM THESE WOMEN?

JC: The information that I got from all over was so compelling, and I think the film did a great job of representing and giving a really clear depiction of what actually happened. So I think as viewers watching the film, you can get a good glimpse of what reflects a lot of what I heard from these women and from a lot of reading that I did. It's just really one of the great tragedies I think of our time.

Q: JENNIFER, YOU WIN YOUR OSCAR AND YOU BECOME THE QUEEN OF GLOOM —

JC: I'm not gloomy (laughs).

Q: IS THIS A MORE LIFE-EMBRACING DIRECTION. . . AND YOU GOT STAR BILLING, YET YOU'RE MISSING FROM THIS POSTER.

JC: You want to change the poster? I campaigned for it. I was very happy for the film. I think also that the character in "Little Children" — I don't think she was gloomy at all. I think she was very positive and had a good career going for herself, and a family. All I can say is that I had a fantastic . . . a great time playing this woman who is out to experience all she can and learn all she can and do as much good as she possibly can. I had a blast doing it. I really like the balance that is struck here in the film. There's a lot for them to overcome in terms of a relationship.

 

She says at the beginning of the film they're pretty much on opposite sides of the fence, and yet I think that my character understands that these are really difficult times and very difficult situations and no one is all good and no one is all bad, so I think that she's mature enough to understand that and sees the good that is in Archer's character. So I think that's a reasonable place where they come to, where they're attracted to each other, they're interested in each other, they've gained respect for one another, despite — they seem very much at odds at the beginning. And yet it's not cheap — it could be something actually quite meaningful, if they had had different circumstances and had had more time together.

Q: COULD THE PRODUCERS ADDRESS SOME OF THE CONTROVERSIES SUCH AS THE REPORTS THAT SOME OF THE AMPUTEES HAD BEEN PROMISED PROSTHETICS AND DIDN'T GET THEM?

PW: When we were there, we were very moved by many people's circumstances, and
frankly we have kept private our giving — whether it was in South Africa or Mozambique. What happened is that the cast and crew came together, all of us, and donated money privately, which we are in the process of giving out to many, many different organizations.

 

Frankly, we never wanted this to be public. It's not something that's important except to the people we met with and hopefully that we helped — and it certainly changed our lives. We did not set out to destroy the diamond industry. The fact is that what we hope out of it is that people will check the source of their diamonds and know that as consumers they have power, and that's what this movie is addressing.

 

MH: One of the things that's gratifying has been that actually there was a very marked change on the part of the diamond industry in its attitude to this film. It started out being very antagonistic, and the implied threat that they were somehow going to go against us and bad mouth what our efforts were, and in midstream they made a real change in their strategy and their attitude toward this and I think they were well advised to do so. And if you look at what they said . . . in the past three months, it's been entirely positive.

 

It's positive about the film and it's been positive in terms of saying that they accept their responsibilities to make sure that The Kimberly Process is upheld, and they accept the fact that they have not always done the best job of doing that, and I think they're wise to do that, and I think it serves everyone to do that, because I think they're going to be held to it. I think they should be and they will. You know, these news items were clearly planted, if you could say it that way, and I think we were encouraged by the fact that they really didn't get a lot of traction, because there just wasn't anything in them. So I'm not sure it's really worth commenting any further because it was just kind of silliness.

Q: JENNIFER, WHAT DOES OSCAR REALLY MEAN TO YOU AND HAS IT REALLY CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

JC: A huge honor, it was lovely, a film I had a wonderful time making, for which I made great friends, found a husband, and all around was a great experience for me, and winning an award for it was sort of the icing on the cake. It was a lovely experience.

Q: DID IT CHANGE YOU?

JC: The award? The making of the film — absolutely. And the award — yeah, it's a huge honor, it really is, it's a huge honor . . . I always love making films and it's just a lovely reflection people appreciate the films and enjoy them and that's wonderful. That's what it's really about.

Q: HAS THE MOVIE CHANGED YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD DIAMONDS?

JC: Well, I'm wearing diamond earrings right now that are from Bulgari. I have done research into retailers that can certify their diamonds are conflict free. I don't think the film suggests a boycott on African diamonds, because there are human rights implications in the boycotting of African diamonds as well. So I think what I got out of the film is a desire to be a more ethical consumer.

 

So I went about doing some research, and there are companies like Bulgari, like Tiffany, who are striving to be clean and accountable and that provide written guarantees that their diamonds are conflict-free and that will also provide consumers with educational materials.

Q: DID YOU FIND A LOT OF PROBLEMS? WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT SURPRISED YOU THAT YOU WEREN'T EXPECTING? WHAT ABOUT WEATHER?

PW: Well we had great luck with the weather. We planned the movie very carefully. There was a moment when we were on pins and needles because it was the stormy season, but . . . the people were extraordinary. We had a very international crew, South African workers, Mozambique workers were spectacular, and everybody came together as a family in the best sense of filmmaking. So we couldn't have had more cooperation and welcome everywhere we went. Everybody worked great. It was an extraordinary, positive experience.

Q: FOR MARSHALL AND PAULA, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FILM AND WHETHER THAT CAN GET IN THE WAY OF TELLING A STORY, BECAUSE AFTER ALL YOU WANT TO ATTRACT PEOPLE INTO THE THEATRE WITH SOMETHING THAT IS ENTERTAINING.

MH: It's interesting that there is somehow a conflict between being politically engaged or being entertaining. It doesn't really apply to how Ed (Zwick) and I think about making movies. I think that when you're a filmmaker, you're a communicator, and if I'm communicating correctly, that's inherently entertaining. That doesn't mean I'm trying to entertain people. I think the act of communication is engaging to an audience. If you're telling a story around a campfire and people are involved and there's a connection between those people, that's what wego for.

 

And you can tell a dark story, you can tell a sad story, you can tell a happy story, and it's all entertaining in the sense that it's engaging and connecting and makes me want to have feelings and you can feel more alive at that moment or in those two hours when you're watching that. So that's what we're thinking about. When we're working on a script, we're thinking about what is the audience experiencing, what is it feeling, are they inside this process or are they outside it, or are they disconnected, or are they feeling nothing? That's what's in our mind as opposed to should we juggle this thing right now, and smile and sort of make people happy? It's not about that for us.

Q: JENNIFER, ONE OF THE ISSUES MADDY IS INVOLVED IN, WHEN SHE SEES SOMETHING HORRIBLE GOING ON, DOES SHE PUT DOWN HER NOTEPAD AND TAKE PART IN IT OR STAND BACK AND OBSERVE AND REPORT ON IT? DID YOU REFLECT ON THAT DILEMMA OR PERHAPS DID YOUR FRIEND?

JC: Absolutely. I think it's something that it's a conflict that she addresses herself in the film — the scene in the classroom when she wonders whether she's exploiting someone else's grief. I watched a really great documentary called "War Photographer" about James Nachtwey and he was discussing the same issue, and I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and think that she spent a lot of time thinking about it, and I think every once in a while it was through a combination of things like [inaudible] when she could she would do little gestures here and there, but she had to keep in sight the fact that it was her goals for the long term and hope that if she stayed true to her job, ultimately she could affect some change and be a positive force. So I think she found it difficult, as many people in that situation do.

Q: WHEN YOU FIRST GOT THE SCRIPT, WHEN YOU WERE FIRST INVOLVED WITH PUTTING IT TOGETHER, WAS THERE A MOMENT WHEN YOU SAID, I NEED TO MAKE THIS MOVIE?

PW: Well, for us, it was slightly different because Warner Brothers had come to us and said, we'd like to do a movie about diamonds, the traffic in the diamond industry, and we began to do research about blood diamonds and conflict diamonds. It's the second movie I've made in Africa, and I've wanted always to go back and it's been in the forefront of my mind for a long time, so we went into rather thorough research in Sierra Leone on conflict diamonds and came up with Chuck's story . . . and Ed came in and reworked it in terms of personal relationships . . . but for us, we wanted to do a story about the people. We didn't want a headline saying we wanted to make a movie about diamonds.

 

This for us is a film about two Africans and the conflicts, what they have suffered and the ability to make a bond. For Maddy? As a journalist to come in both with a fresh point of view and a critical point of view . . . one of the things I loved so much about Jennifer's performance every time I see it is that she allows for a humanity to come through, and we all —watching little bits of sound bites, with these images of journalists as hard-bitten and she is both tough-minded and available as a human being to the situation going on, and that's extremely unique for me and in the end it's a story about people, and that's what drove us all.

MH: I would say I didn't have that feeling until we had already sort of worked on a script for a certain period of time, and I felt that these relationships suddenly began to cook. I mean, there is that moment where something just combusts, and when you feel each character having whatever that engine is that drives that person to do what they need to do. There was a moment when I suddenly fell in love with this — yes, this is something that's going to work, and it's going to be exciting.

JC: I thought it was a very powerful script, a very powerful story, and I thought it would make a very moving and exciting film, and I thought how fantastic to make a good, solid action drama that at the same time is able to raise questions and talk about some of the important issues that are still relevant today.

Q: JENNIFER, WHAT WAS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE YOU CAME ACROSS IN THE MAKING OF THIS FILM?

JC: Ah, I have to say it was a joy making the film. I loved my time there, so externally there were no huge obstacles to overcome. The cast were a delight. Djimon and Leo were both fantastic to work with. Ed [was] an absolute joy. I loved being in Mozambique and South Africa, so things were going pretty swimmingly for me, so I'd say — just sort of the most challenging thing was my own head, my conviction that I can always be better and do better. So just putting up with that and the subsequent endless hours of considering and wondering that I always put myself through and trying to make choices for a character.

Q: JENNIFER, WERE YOU ABLE TO BRING YOUR CHILDREN TO THE SHOOT?

JC: I did. Our younger son, Stellan, was there the whole time, and older son Kai, 9, because of his own social commitments and school commitments, he came over in the middle for 5 or 6 weeks, he was basically home for a month, with us for a month, and back at home. It was fantastic for them in different ways. First of all, on time off, we travelled around, went on safari, we travelled to Botswana. For them, it was an incredible experience to see wild life and nature. And also, especially for my older son, to come along and drive past the townships. He came with me to some schools that we visited, to see the classrooms in Mozambique, to see what the children didn't have, and that was very educational and I was very happy he was able to see that . . .

Q: WHAT ABOUT YOUR CHEMISTRY WITH LEO? IT SEEMS ALMOST BETTER TO HAVE THAT UNRESOLVED SEXUAL TENSION. THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT FEELING BACK IN THE FORTIES AND ACCOMPLISHING MORE WITH YOUR EYES.

JC: I think it was — if you're responding to the chemistry between us, it's probably a testament to our great working relationship that we had. Like I said, I had so much respect for him and I really enjoyed the way that he works. I found him to be an incredibly generous actor, truly generous, remarkably unselfish in the way he approaches his work. Very interested in storytelling and supporting his fellow cast members. It was really such a delight talking about scenes and working on them together. And I agree with you . . . I really liked the balance it struck, I thought it was realistic, I thought it didn't take away from either of these characters — they were strong within themselves but it was human and understandable, their attraction to one another. I really enjoyed working together with him to find that balance.

"Blood Diamond" opens in theaters on December 8th.