Shortly after this movie came out, I saw something or read something that said that Jennifer Connelly was 18 when she filmed it, and it's entirely believable. She's a fully formed, mature woman in this movie. I always thought this to be a case of Dawson Casting. That ballroom scene, she could easily pass for 25.
It's also weird that she's barely aged in the last 30 years.
She's freaking me out.
I`m sorry for my lack of manners, but I`m not used to escorting men.
Actually, she was 15 when they were filming, 16 when the film was released. Connelly's birth year is 1970, Labyrinth was filmed in 1985.
Some girls naturally mature at a younger age, but I don't think Connelly looked that much older than she was. When you look at her face and body, she still has obvious baby fat in certain places. To me, she looks nowhere near 20, let alone 25.
Theatricality and deception are powerful agents against the uninitiated.
Yes, thank you. I think there are various factors...
1) Yes, she is very buxom.
2) DracVladOU818 nailed it: She is beyond gorgeous in this movie, whereas most 14/15-year-olds are "cute" but not grown-up gorgeous. She looks like a young-looking 20-something.
3) She seems fairly tall, compared to David Bowie, and especially compared to all the little puppets around her.
4) Her makeup is done by someone who knows what they're doing, and most teens can be pretty clueless, especially back in the 1980s. And her clothing, too, is especially mature, and not that frickin like torn-up jeans Debbie Gibson thing that girls tried to do back then. Her hair is great, and not Aquanet kill-the-ozone "higher-the-hair-the-closer-to-God" updo. It was obviously done by an adult with good taste. Even in the ballroom scene, it's incredibly subdued compared to MTV.
5) Her demeanor is of a mature adult trying to act like a little kid. I'm sorry, but this isn't some of Jennifer Connelly's best acting. She acts like a very bratty 10-year-old for the first part of the movie. And by "acts" I mean "overacts" because it's not convincing, and I mean that it makes me think that she's an actress performing a part in a movie, it doesn't make me believe that she is Sarah. Later in the movie, she starts to seem more contemplative and wise, which is what I think her true self is, as it seemed very sincere. However, in this movie as a whole, it comes off as someone who is very mature trying to act like a child who is coming of age.
And some other stuff, but I have to go for now and so I have to stop typing.
I`m sorry for my lack of manners, but I`m not used to escorting men.
I agree, her acting was pretty bad in the early scenes. But then, this was her first film so I do cut her a break there.
You're spot on in that they made her up like an an adult, NOT like a teen.
I thought her wardrobe was very clever as well, and very deliberately chosen. She has the everyday teen jeans, but her top is NOT what most teenagers would have chosen to wear in the '80s...or any time really. It has an old-time, fantasy-art look to it, and this is not by accident. It reflects Sarah's deep belief in the realm of fantasy & make-believe.
I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus. Didn't he discover America? Penfold, shush.
I didn't mean it in a negative way. You are correct. The shirt has a timeless Renaissance Faire thing going on. I've always liked the shirt, but I never realized how it sort of makes her seem more like someone born a long time ago, rather than someone born in the 1970s who was a teen in the 1980s. So it ages her. Though it is perfect for someone like Sarah.
There are multiple factors, but I, personally, now blame the shirt more than anything else.
I`m sorry for my lack of manners, but I`m not used to escorting men.
Her outfit actually looks exactly like the things we wore at that age in the mid-80s. I had at least 3 shirts like that, and we all had dozens of vests. Nothing about her hair, makeup or wardrobe is out of place for a girl of that age at that time. She looks like pictures of my friends and I back then. I see nothing buxom, mature, or adult in her look or bearing. Not sure what movie you all watched!!
Well, I was only 11 when this film came out so perhaps the fashion of 'older teens' was not known to me. But none of the teenagers I ever saw in the '80s dressed like that.
And NONE were bosomy like Jennifer Connelly! Nowadays maybe, with diets being so different & food hormones & fat teenagers....but not in 1986.
I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus. Didn't he discover America? Penfold, shush.
You don't have to be a teenager now to have/have had a large bosom. I know a couple of people, one who was a teen on the 70's and one who was a teen in the 90's, who both were rather bosomy, as you say, even then when they were teens.
Something else I think needs to be put into consideration is that even in the same year fashions could be slightly different, depending on where you live. So where you live(d), with the people you interacted with, the flowey blouses might not have been common or popular but where the other poster live(d) they may have been all the rage.
I need to add to this thread that Jim Henson and David Bowie both agree with me in the "making of" featurette on the DVD. Jim Henson says that she seems quite adult, and David Bowie says, "One forgets that she's only 14 years old. She's really very mature."
"That's like putting your whole mouth right in The Dip!" - Seinfeld
To me, in some scenes she looked about 18-19, others 14 etc... girls who are 15-16 can be "fully formed", after all girls do mature faster (but also stop maturing/growing sooner, or so I read).
25 though, I don't think so, she had that cheruby, young, rosy cheeked look plus soft baby fat face that only mostly really young ppl have.
No way. I just saw the movie and kept thinking how young she looked even for a teenager. She still had a baby face. It actually annoyed me see her wear some eye make up to make her look older, (or just because it was the 80s. Yes, of course when all dressed up she looks slighly older but still you can see beneath that she´s a pubert wanting to look older.
She looked 14 or 15. I'm basically a contemporary and she looked like any of my friends in high school. Very pretty girl. Character was weird, but not any weirder than most of the girls I knew at the time. Heh.
She is aging pretty well though!
Why did the white bear dissolve in water? Because he was polar!