The enduring humility of Helen Hunt

Her face is starting to look calcified.

She had too much plastic surgery done. I saw her in the new Mad About You episodes about 2 years ago and it doesn't work for her.

I hear that whatever set she is on, she insists on running the lost-and-found.

Was she included in the Push Actors thread?

I know she is scorned by Datalounge, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Helen Hunt. I watched her in things like Swiss Family Robinson when she was young, It Takes Two when she was a little older, and Mad About You as an adult. She’s got spunk.

Helen allegedly doesn’t like to talk about her appearance on THE BIONIC WOMAN in 1978. She played an alien princess. This clip is after Jaime dove into the lake to rescue her from drowning.

Coincidentally, Happy 72nd Birthday to Lindsay! 🎂

During “Mad About You,” my friend ended up at a blackjack table in Vegas with one of the cast members.

She asked what Hunt was like, and the actor said, “She has EVERY REASON to be happy in life…. And she’s NOT.”

Sounds like a miserably complicated person.

Reading that article, I realized for the first time I’m almost Helen Hunt’s age.

Why doesn’t she look 20 years younger, like me (??)

Can anyone share the contents of the WSJ article?

I do not want to subscribe for just that one article.

I like the photo of her and her outfit.

Helen Hunt, 58, is an Oscar- and Emmy-winning actor and director who co-starred in TV’s “Mad About You” sitcom and in the films “As Good as It Gets” and “The Sessions.” She co-stars in Starz’s TV series “Blindspotting.” She spoke with Marc Myers.

Five years before “Godspell” reached Broadway in 1976, I saw the musical in the basement of a New York church. I was 8 and my father took me. Something about that performance pierced my heart and imagination.

The play’s joyous, folk-experimental approach, with the cast painting each other’s faces and pouring wine for the audience, captured me. I wanted to be a part of that experience.

Throughout my childhood, I jumped at the chance to see plays and take acting classes and watch rehearsals. Anything that would put me in a theater.

We had moved to New York when I was 3. I was born in Los Angeles but my father, Gordon, was a director who wanted to work in the theater. We lived in a Manhattan apartment at 96th Street and Park Avenue. When I was 6, my father began taking me weekly to see plays and musicals.

My parents’ best friends were theater people, including producer Henry Guettel and his wife, the celebrated composer Mary Rodgers, daughter of Richard Rodgers. Their kids and I grew up together going to the theater.

I was 9 when we moved back to L.A. At first, we didn’t have a place to live so we lived at the Chateau Marmont. I’d walk down to the liquor store on Sunset Boulevard to buy candy. Eventually, we settled in the Hollywood Hills.

I spent a lot of time with my aunt, Catherine Fries Vaughn, who was my age. We grew up like sisters. I did what Catherine wanted to do. When she went to ballet and acting classes, I went with her.

My first acting teacher, Lurene Tuttle, was known as the first lady of radio. She taught a class for kids and another for adults. I begged her to let me take both and she gave in.

People called me an old soul when I was growing up, but I didn’t feel like one. Despite my passion for the theater, I still wanted to go to Disneyland and see movies and have fun.

No one said to me, “Be an actor” or “Study acting with your dad.” That all came from me. My father and I didn’t fight. We skipped the push for independence. It never was a thing.

My mom let me continue with acting classes provided my schoolwork didn’t suffer. She was enormously empathetic and generous. I got that from her.

In ’72, my teacher knew an agent who was looking for a child actor to audition for a TV movie. I got the part in “Pioneer Woman,” shot in Alberta, Canada.

It was fun, except for scenes like the one where a snake falls out of the ceiling onto my dinner plate.

The sitcom “Mad About You” in ’92 was a big turning point for me in terms of visibility. I had a roommate who was friends with Paul Reiser’s wife. We had a dinner party, and she invited Paula and her husband, Paul.

I met Paul that night and found him very funny. Three days later, Paul called and told me about a pilot he had co-written for a sitcom and that I’d be ideal for the part as his wife.

I had been doing a lot of TV and was just starting to get parts in movies. I thought, “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be the wife.” But I didn’t want to be rude, so I read the pilot script. I thought it was great.

Paul and I had chemistry. Paul and his partner, Danny Jacobson, liked me for the part. Then they brought me to NBC. I auditioned and was hired.

Today, I live in West Lost Angeles. I bought a house built in the 1920s and moved in 18 years ago. My dad was born in 1929, so the house gives me a connection to old L.A.

When “Mad About You” had just become successful, I got caricaturist Al Hirschfeld to do a drawing of the two of us for my dad’s 70th birthday. He loved it.

My dad passed in 2016. I have the framed Hirschfeld now.

It came down between Helen and Teri Hatcher for the female lead on "Mad About You"

Helen’s Roles

What’s “Blindspotting” about? It’s the story of a family torn apart by the prison industrial complex. And it’s a comedy!

Your role? I’m the very unpredictable mother.

Little known fact? I started dancing at age 6 and continued until I got “Mad About You.”

Did dance make you a better actor? Dance put me in touch with movement, and the discipline made me a better rehearser.

You were on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” at 14? Yep. As Murray’s daughter.

What makes Jack Nicholson special? He is the rare combination of wild and studied. The best!

Corrections & Amplifications Helen Hunt starred with Paul Reiser in ‘Mad About You.’ An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled his name as Riser. (Corrected on June 22, 2021.)

What an interesting life she had growing up.

One of the most undeserved Oscars there ever was.

There is a scene in Castaway when Tom, Helen and his family are eating Christmas dinner. It’s a master class in acting from all the actors. Very real and natural.

Thank you for sharing the WSJ article.

Somehow, she’s quite boring despite being accomplished.

I do love everything about the melodramatically clichéd TWISTER, though. Including her. Such an awful, guilty pleasure.

Did Helen and Sarah Jessica Pony become friends after filming Girls Just Want To Have Fun?

Her recent Marc Maron interview was very good.

I've always liked Helen. I don't get the hate for her. I just wish she didn't fuck up her face.

She has had the strangest plastic surgery because I can't explain or understand what procedures she had. She just looks so strange. Plus she looks so skinny, which doesn't help.

R7, What cast member was it?

R26, there were not that many women with regular or recurring roles.

Oooop! Sorry---I thought it was a woman at the blackjack table saying that about Hunt.

Hey, Hey Helen!

Helen is rather moody and aloof.

Helen Cunt.