JENNIFER CONNELLY UNCOVERS THE REAL AFRICA

In Blood Diamond Jennifer Connelly became a journalist to interview the real people her character was based upon, and learned what still exists of Africa’s strife.

Jennifer Connelly was persistently accurate about playing a journalist in Blood Diamond trying to uncover the true story about conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone so she met with the real women who were there.

She talks about meeting them and became a journalist herself in asking the right kinds of questions that would inform the character.

“I met with a number of women journalists, a couple of whom had been in Freetown in 1999 writing stories on conflict diamonds. And I grilled them for all they were worth. I was just ruthless and bored them to death with my never ending list of questions. That was very useful from stuff like, ‘what do you pack in your bag?’ to what’s it like witnessing this sort of stuff every day. I read articles provided by Amnesty International who were very kind to send me a lot of resources.”

There’s a saying in Africa called T.I.A. which stands for This Is Africa which is said in the scene where Leonardo’s character Danny Archer meets Jennifer’s American journalist Maddy Bowen at a hotel.

“I’ve never been in a place where there was so much disparity between the haves and the have nots. That was so plain to see and that was sort of shocking. I’ve also never been anyplace where there were such appalling living conditions for so many people and yet there was such a vital civil society. A place like Moputu for example, the capitol of Mozambique where a lot of people don’t have clean water. There’s a huge effluence problem that the city is still literally partly bombed out from the aftermath of the revolution there. But it’s really vibrant and alive and really interesting textures.”

Jennifer talks about what the expression means to her having spent time there while making the film.

Blood Diamond opens tomorrow in theaters.