Jennifer Connelly Tells Drew Barrymore She Felt “Complete Shock” While Accepting Oscar: “I Was So Nervous And Overwhelmed”

By Samantha Nungesser @samjnungesser
Published May 14, 2024, 11:10 a.m. ET

Where to Stream:

The Drew Barrymore Show

Powered by Reelgood

More On:

Drew Barrymore

Jennifer Connelly is remembering the sheer “panic” she felt as she accepted her first and only Oscar for the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind.

The actress appeared on this morning’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, where host Drew Barrymore asked her what it felt like to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

“Complete shutdown. Like, panic,” Connelly said. “I was so nervous and overwhelmed.”

She continued, “I remember looking out at the audience full of all those extraordinary people and then just seeing it say 40 seconds — you know, because there’s a monitor that tells you how long you have to speak. I saw it and I think I just — complete shock.”

Connelly recalled “floating” and “gliding” into the evening, adding, “I went there with my dad. He came with me, which was really special for me so he tethered me somewhat.”

An Oscar wasn’t the only good thing to come from A Beautiful Mind. Connelly also met her husband Paul Bettany while filming the drama.

“We didn’t really spend much time together on set until right at the end of the movie, where I can’t remember what happened but we were in Princeton and we had an evening with a group of people and we both kind of went, ‘Oh. Hi,'” she told Barrymore.

Connelly continued, “We spend just a little time together right at the end. But I was with someone else and he was with someone else. So nothing happened.”

'The Drew Barrymore Show'
Photo: CBS

The star, who was living in the West Village with her son at the time, later reconnected with Bettany following 9/11. By that point, they had both ended their respective relationships.

“Paul was in Italy and, as he tells it, he became obsessed with the idea of trying to reach me and see if I was OK,” she explained. “He was calling, he couldn’t get through. He couldn’t stop trying to reach me and he went, ‘Oh, I know what this means.’ And finally he got through and he was like, ‘We need to see each other. We need to get together.'”

The couple tied the knot within the year, and has since been married for 21 years.

The Drew Barrymore Show airs on weekdays on CBS. You can check the website for local airtimes.