‘Dark Matter’ star Jennifer Connelly reflects on the exploration of alternate realities and ‘the path not taken’
“I thought it had the potential to be really exciting and a great adventure,” declares “Dark Matter” star Jennifer Connelly about portraying the devoted wife whose physicist husband is abducted and trapped in an alternate reality. For our recent webchat she adds, “I love that it was doing that in this really spectacular way, telling a story about things that a lot of us can relate to — a story about a marriage at the center of it, and of this guy who’s wondering how he feels about the choices that he made. Did he make the right choices? Did he miss out on something? So that kind of very familiar landscape of story is being told in this really spectacular way, which I thought was really fun.” Watch our video interview above.
SEE our interview with ‘Dark Matter’ creator Blake Crouch
“Dark Matter” is based on series creator, writer and showrunner Blake Crouch‘s 2016 blockbuster novel of the same name. The nine-episode Apple TV+ drama stars Joel Edgerton as family man and college physics professor Jason Dessen, who unwillingly travels between alternate realities after being abducted at gunpoint one night by his counterpart from an alternate reality. This ruthless, entrepreneurial alter-ego has discovered a way to travel between dimensions by sealing the traveler inside a metal box and injecting them with a chemical compound to inhibit areas of their prefrontal cortex, inducing a state of mind that allows them to travel inter-dimensionally.
The series explores the psychological toll of being faced with infinite versions of yourself, each representing the different decisions you could have made, and how the pursuit of power, family, and identity becomes a life-or-death struggle. As Jason journeys through these alternate realities, he must confront his own demons, understand what truly matters in life, and fight to reclaim the family he loves from the man he might have become. The story hinges on Jason’s desperate attempts to return to his own family and the terrifying realization that his greatest enemy in this journey is none other than himself — an alternate version of him who has made different choices in life. Connelly co-stars as Jason’s devoted wife Daniela alongside Alice Braga, Oakes Fegley, Emmy nominee Jimmi Simpson (“Westworld”), Dayo Okeniyi, and Amanda Brugel.
One of the main narrative themes in “Dark Matter” contemplates what might happen if we were to leave this world to start over someplace else, what we would give in return to do so, and ultimately how we often idealize and romanticize the path not taken (i.e. the proverbial “grass is always greener on the other side”). Connelly acknowledges that working on the series has naturally led her to reflect on some of the existential dilemmas the show raises. “I don’t spend a lot of time in regret. And to be honest with you, I’m so aware of how fortunate I am in this life, but I think it’s an interesting thing to think about,” she reveals. “Even the things that we feel like maybe weren’t the happiest chapter, whatever happened, but in some way, it makes other things possible. It’s hard to untangle all of those things, the negative and the positive. I like that show isn’t saying that in the end the characters discover that there was one perfect version of happiness. There are different versions of happiness, and there’s the happiness that we choose, the one that’s right for each of us. There’s a nice moment in the story as well. I love when he says ‘there was a world where I could have stayed. There was a world where I felt like I could have been happy, but I chose you. I chose to be to be here and to be with you.’ I love that moment in the show.”