Jennifer Connelly doesn't stand still

The truth is, Jennifer Connelly had never seen "The Day the Earth Stood Still." She'd heard of the 1951 sci-fi classic, but when the actress saw the script of a planned remake, it was fresh to her and seemed incredibly timely. "It's kind of eerie," she says. "It's a really truthful view of our time." The Cold War threat that casts a shadow over the original film, in which an alien arrives on Earth to warn people they must live in peace or be destroyed, has been replaced by environmental dangers and a message of conservation. "It's a really self-reflective film," says the actress, who turned 38 Friday. "For a big Hollywood studio film to be that straightforward about our own shortcomings and weaknesses is pretty cool." And she likes that this really is a big Hollywood studio film, co-starring neo-futurist veteran Keanu Reeves. "It was kind of a big spectacle of a movie that I thought was exciting and would probably be, in the true sense, awesome to behold, given what can be done in cinema these days," she says. If that seems strange to fans of Connelly's work in quieter movies such as "A Beautiful Mind," for which she won an Academy Award, it might help to take a longer view of her career. She has been making movies for 26 years. At 11, she was cast in the gangster tale "Once Upon a Time in America." Two years later she became a teen star in David Bowie's cult classic "Labyrinth." The daughter of a clothing manufacturer and an antiques dealer, Connelly got into the business as a kid, when a family friend suggested she try modeling. It snowballed, as things sometimes do for the talented and beautiful. By her early 20s she had a resume any veteran actor would envy and real questions about whether acting was how she wanted to spend her life. "I hadn't chosen it, as an adult, for myself," she says on the phone from a Los Angeles hotel room. "It was something that sort of happened. And it happened as a result of other people's suggestions or influence." She made a decision to remain in the field. Still, she adds, "there was a shift: a period where I said, 'Okay, but I'm doing it on my own terms and I'm taking responsibility for it. And I'm consciously making a choice: This is my career.' " Connelly's stewardship of her career has led her to cross a large swath of genres. Throughout her 20s she was regarded almost exclusively as a bright-eyed ingenue. But in 2000 she appeared as a heroin addict in "Requiem for a Dream." The critics took notice. The following year she nabbed the Oscar for her role as the wife of a tortured math genius. She has since appeared as a superhero's love interest ("Hulk," 2003), a suicidal ex-addict ("House of Sand and Fog," 2003) and a heroic journalist ("Blood Diamond," 2006). In just the past 18 months, her resume has swung from the indie drama "Reservation Road" to the big-budget action flick "The Day the Earth Stood Still" to a girls'-night-out rom-com, "He's Just Not That Into You," slated for a February release. "The Day the Earth Stood Still" gave Connelly the opportunity not only to appear in a special-effects-laden action film but to do it playing "this amazing part for a woman." She plays Helen Benson, an astrobiologist brought in to study the alien. She becomes the character on whom the fate of the Earth depends. Despite her credentials and long tenure in the business, compelling opportunities don't pile up on the doorstep of the New York home she shares with her husband, actor Paul Bettany, and two sons. Thus, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" looked even more enticing, despite the risk inherent in any attempt to improve a classic (a classic she did eventually watch, by the way). "It's such a good story, I thought there was room to tell it now," she explains