After all this came a pause and a serious evaluation of his life. "I started working when I still didn't know what I was like inside", she later explained; "when I was still some kind of walking puppet. Some of the movies I've done ... I look back and shiver." Since then she has wondered if she really wanted to be an actress, if she really wanted to grow up in front of an audience. She decided yes. After attending nightclubs not having the age to do so, she began to dress in black and listen to the music of the Cure.
With the 90s came the best and worst of her early career. In The Hot Spot (1990), directed by Dennis Hopper (who noticed her in Some Girls), Don Johnson plays the role of an abusive guy who drives in a small Texas town, gets a job, plans a bank robbery , draws the attention of the boss's wife, Virginia Madsen, and immediately falls in love with the young accountant played by Connelly. Jennifer, who is now a voluptuous woman, receives the attention of many male critics, especially when she is half-naked. Speaking of her occasional nudity in the film Jennifer later stated: “They were formative experiences, in the past I was very reserved and shy. I was a good girl and I wanted to be, but that can't lead to a secrecy that could be a hindrance. It was a gradual process. "However, the film was neither a critical nor a commercial success.
Along with a series of less successful commercial films, followed by the comedy Anything Can Happen, a romantic comedy written by John Hughes, in which Connelly played a wealthy girl trapped for a night in a shop with a charmless boyfriend. portrayed by Frank Whaley. The two begin to understand each other when suddenly the shop is raided by two thieves. People magazine accused the film of exploiting the actress's body and the advertising campaign confirmed their opinion. Among the commercials was a cardboard cutout, taken from a scene that included a mechanical horse, in which Whaley looks at Jennifer and the caption reads "She will have the ride of her life".
