Heather Donahue of "The Blair Witch Project" changed her name to Rei Hance and is now a "spiritual guide"
She apparently legally changed her name and is now a Buddhist "spiritual guide" living in Maine. I know she was a pot grower in California for many years and wrote a book about her experiences in the profession around ten years ago.
[quote] In 2020, Donahue changed her name to Rei Hance (with Rei short for Reigetsu, meaning ‘Spirit Moon’ in Zen tradition), after a reinvention that saw her become a spiritual ‘guide’. This followed a troubling few years for Hance, whose personal association with – and use of her real name in – The Blair Witch Project became a burden.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | March 21, 2023 3:36 AM
|
I remember when Blair Witch came out and so many people thought it was real. I’m like, I saw that bitch on a Steak n Shake commercial! Please!
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | March 20, 2023 5:26 AM
|
It seems unnecessary her name isn’t so unique. It took me a few moments to remember who she was
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | March 21, 2023 2:58 AM
|
Sometimes the best thing is to just leave and start over. You see so many people who aren't mentally handling the stressors of Hollywood stay year after year until they've lost their minds. I'm a firm believer that you can survive a lot of things in life if you recognize quickly that it's not working out and get out early. It's the people who stay too long in a bad whatever ( relationship, career, town) who don't make it.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | March 21, 2023 3:13 AM
|
R4 she played the Hollywood game for a minute, but not any longer than that. Just after "The Blair Witch Project", she was in a low-rent young adult comedy, "Boys and Girls" (alongside Claire Forlani, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Jason Biggs), which was produced by Miramax/Weinstein. She also had a role on the popular sci-fi series "Taken" and a guest spot on an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", but that was pretty much it.
I read a couple of interviews with her, and it seems she really regretted using her real name in "The Blair Witch Project", hence the name change later in life. It's kind of sad that that movie had such a negative impact on her, because it was a groundbreaking horror film and an international cultural milestone. My impression is that she never really had the intention of "going Hollywood"—she was an arts student who primarily did theater work. She apparently studied at the University of Arts in Philadelphia and also did some stage work in London. The impression I got reading some of her interviews was that she didn't have it in her personality to really play the Hollywood game, and it took a swift crash-course turn of events for her to realize that.
For what it's worth, I think her performance (if you want to call it that) in "The Blair Witch Project" is fantastic. It's been parodied and joked about from day one, but I still find it a very effective horror movie. There is more human fear and desperation evoked in it than in 99% of films I can think of, let alone horror flicks.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | March 21, 2023 3:36 AM
|
