{"id":62982,"date":"2022-09-01T17:07:07","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T17:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/helen-hunt-there-were-a-couple-of-years-i-was-spooked-i-just-became-very-boring-helen-hunt\/"},"modified":"2022-09-01T17:07:07","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T17:07:07","slug":"helen-hunt-there-were-a-couple-of-years-i-was-spooked-i-just-became-very-boring-helen-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/helen-hunt-there-were-a-couple-of-years-i-was-spooked-i-just-became-very-boring-helen-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Hunt: ‘There were a couple of years I was spooked \u2013 I just became very boring’ | Helen Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I<\/span><\/span>n the eyes of some, As Good As It Gets was as good as it got for Helen Hunt. Despite starring in a hit NBC sitcom, Mad About You, and a cult disaster movie, Twister,<\/em> <\/strong>it was the release of the acerbic romcom in 1997 \u2013 in which Hunt’s waitress and single mother forms a love-hate relationship with Jack Nicholson’s misanthropic author \u2013 that saw her career truly go supernova. As Good As It Gets brought overnight fame and a best actress Oscar. And yet, the decades since have seen if not a disappearance of that fame, at least an erosion, with few of her films bothering the box office or the Academy (although she did land a best supporting actress nomination for 2012 indie film The Sessions)<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Helen Hunt isn’t of that mindset, though, because As Good As It Gets <\/em>gave her exactly what she didn’t want: fame. \u201cThere were a couple of years when I was a little spooked,\u201d she admits when asked about paparazzi outside her house. \u201cI was afraid that I could never unring that bell.\u201d So how did she cope with the media assault? \u201cI just became very boring,\u201d she says matter-of-factly.<\/p>\n

Hunt is far from boring company, but she does seem incredibly normal; she hardly the sort of person you could imagine hovering around some renowned celebrity hotspot. As we chat on Zoom, she sits on her bed in glasses, clutching a bowl and apologizing for eating dinner while we talk. \u201cThere are some people,\u201d she says, \u201cwho will live more exciting lives and keep going at that level \u2013 and it’s their whole life, wherever they go, for ever.\u201d She looks stricken at this, as if it’s her worst nightmare, but then laughs. \u201cI think by the 130th picture of me in my khaki pants with my yoga mat, that picture’s worth nothing!\u201d<\/p>\n

The 59-year-old actor and film-maker is in London, where she is rehearsing for her star turn in Eureka Day at the Old Vic. Despite first being performed in Berkeley, California, in 2018, it’s a play you’d struggle to believe was written before the pandemic, dealing with misinformation and the entrenched positions that arise in a school community when a mumps outbreak prompts calls for mandatory vaccines. Ringing any bells?<\/p>\n

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<\/svg><\/span>Hunt stars alongside Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets.<\/span> Photograph: Tristar Pictures\/Allstar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt’s daring to put its finger on a tricky topic,\u201d Hunt says. \u201cIt’s a play about coming apart. [About] what’s happening in so many places, certainly in my country, and I guess your country. And the wish to come together, and the increasing difficulty [in doing so]especially when things get very real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunt’s love for theater began when she was around five years old, attending productions with her dad \u2013 an acting coach and theater director. She remembers seeing the original production of Godspell in a church basement. \u201cAnd that was it,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn’t even know if I wanted to be acting or singing or directing. I just wanted to be in the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunt’s father died in 2016. \u201cEvery time I see a play I think of him, because he was always so excited when the lights began to go down,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I am, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

While theater may be her first love, and film is what she’ll be remembered for \u2013 her many credits include What Women Want, Cast Away and Pay It Forward \u2013 Hunt has a TV show to thank for giving her a first career bump. Mad About You, in which she and Paul Reiser starred as a pair of newlyweds living in New York City, premiered in 1992, back when TV was still sniffed at \u2013 but that would soon change.<\/p>\n