Connie Nielsen

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Birthday:

3 July 1965, Elling, Frederikshavn, Denmark

Birth Name:

Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen

Height:

179 cm

Danish beauty Connie Nielsen consistently lights up the screen with an eclectic bevy of film roles. She was born in Frederikshavn, Denmark, to a mother who worked as an insurance clerk, and a father, Bent Nielsen, who was a bus driver. Nielsen began her acting career working alongside her mother on the local revue and variety scene. At 18, she headed to Paris to continue her pursuit of acting, which led her to further work and study in Rome and Milan. In addition to being an accomplished actress, Nielsen is also a trained singer, dancer and is fluent in English, German, Danish, Swedish, French and Italian. She resides in New York.However, it was Nielsen's portrayal of "Princess Lucilla", opposite Russell Crowe's Maximus in Ridley Scott's Academy Award-winning Gladiator (2000), which first garnered a mass appeal. She won Best Actress Awards from the Danish Academy Awards and from the San Sebastian Film Festival for her role in the Danish drama Brødre (2004) (aka Brothers), which was released by Focus Features and IFC Films. She then appeared in the World War II epic The Great Raid (2005) opposite Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes and James Franco for director John Dahl and produced by Miramax; the dramatic thriller Return to Sender (2004) directed by Bille August, which premiered at The Toronto Film Festival in 2004; and the black comedy The Ice Harvest (2005) with John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton and Randy Quaid, directed by Harold Ramis for Focus Features. In 2003, Nielsen starred as an industrial spy in a corporate war in the critically acclaimed suspense thriller Demonlover (2002), directed by Olivier Assayas and co-starring Chloë Sevigny and Gina Gershon. Her other lead roles range from The Hunted (2003) by director William Friedkin (with Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro; to Basic (2003) by director John McTiernan (opposite John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson); to One Hour Photo (2002) where she starred opposite Robin Williams; to Mission to Mars (2000) opposite Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins and Don Cheadle; to The Devil's Advocate (1997) starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves.Additionally, Nielsen has received a Best Actress Award from the Empire Awards for her role in Gladiator (2000), and has given unforgettable performances as a German heroin junkie in Permanent Midnight (1998) opposite Ben Stiller and as an unmatronly Texas mother in Rushmore (1998) opposite Bill Murray. Other film credits include Dark Summer (2000) (aka The Innocents) opposite Jean-Hugues Anglade, Voyage (1993) with Rutger Hauer and Eric Roberts. Show less «

I'm definitely more attracted to chaos than to order. The point is, I find the female roles out there very cliché. If we are limited to bei...Show more »

I'm definitely more attracted to chaos than to order. The point is, I find the female roles out there very cliché. If we are limited to being only lovers or mothers, we are limiting ourselves. Show less «

[on The Hunted (2003)] I trained with the FBI in Portland and I also had many conversations with female FBI agents in Los Angeles, as well. ...Show more »

[on The Hunted (2003)] I trained with the FBI in Portland and I also had many conversations with female FBI agents in Los Angeles, as well. That was again something that also came in very handy for Basic (2003), because I'd learned already how to handle a gun and how to behave just physically when you're in a situation, a threat. That was very good to know. I didn't have to do that again. Show less «

Often when you get a really good script, and you receive the new pages, you see that the entire thing has been dumbed down. Films in the '30...Show more »

Often when you get a really good script, and you receive the new pages, you see that the entire thing has been dumbed down. Films in the '30s and '40s, that were huge blockbusters, were very sophisticated in their language, and the ideas they brought. There were no questions about whether the audience would get it or not. Today there is a certain fear, or horror, that the audience won't understand. They underestimate the audience very often. And that is because, when you look at the box-office to see that total braindead films make lots of money, then that's what the cash machine is telling you to do. In other words: More braindead, more money! Show less «

We have a certain warped sense of humor in Scandinavia, and that is what comes across in the choices in a lot of our movies.