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Holly Hunter - Biography |
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Holly P. Hunter (born March 20,
1958) is an American actress. Her films include Raising Arizona, Broadcast
News, Always, and The Piano for which she won several acting awards,
including an Academy Award for Best Actress. She stars in the cable
television series Saving Grace.
Holly Hunter was born in Conyers, Georgia, the daughter of Opal Marguerite
(née Catledge), a housewife, and Charles Edwin Hunter, a farmer and
sporting-goods manufacturer's representative. Hunter earned a degree in
drama from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, after which she moved
to New York City and roomed with fellow actress Frances McDormand. Hunter
in 2008 described living in The Bronx "at the end of the D [subway] train,
just off 205th Street, on Bainbridge Avenue and Hull Avenue. It was very
Irish, and then you could go just a few blocks away and hit major
Italian". A chance encounter with playwright Beth Henley, when the two
were trapped alone in an elevator, led to Hunter's being cast in Henley's
plays Crimes of the Heart (succeeding Mary Beth Hurt on Broadway), and
Off-Broadway's The Miss Firecracker Contest. "It was like the beginning of
1982. It was on 49th Street between Broadway and Eighth [Avenue] on the
south side of the street", Hunter recalled in an interview. "[We were
trapped] 10 minutes; not long. We actually had a nice conversation. It was
just the two of us".
When she moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1982, Hunter shared a house
with a group of people that included McDormand and director Sam Raimi, as
well as future collaborators Joel and Ethan Coen.
Hunter made her screen debut in the 1981 horror movie The Burning. After
moving to Los Angeles, California in 1982, Hunter appeared in TV movies
before being cast in a supporting role in 1984's Swing Shift. That year,
she had her first collaboration with the writing-directing-producing team
of brothers Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, in Blood Simple, making an
uncredited appearance as a voice on an answering-machine recording. More
film and television work followed until 1987, when thanks to a starring
role in the Coens' Raising Arizona and her Academy Award-nominated turn in
Broadcast News, Hunter became a critically acclaimed star. She went on to
the screen adaptation of Henley's Miss Firecracker; Steven Spielberg's
Always, a romantic drama with Richard Dreyfuss; and the made-for-TV 1989
docudrama about the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade.
Following her second collaboration with Dreyfuss, in Once Around, Hunter
garnered critical appreciation for her work in three 1993 films, two of
which resulted in her being nominated for two Academy Awards the same
year: Hunter's performance in The Firm won her a nomination as Best
Supporting Actress, while her portrayal of a mute Scottish woman entangled
in an adulterous affair with Harvey Keitel in Jane Campion's The Piano won
her the Best Actress award. Hunter went on to appear in films such as the
comedy-drama Home for the Holidays and the thriller Copycat. Her work in
David Cronenberg's Crash did win her strong notices, but it was swallowed
by the controversies surrounding the film, and her appearance as a
sardonic angel in A Life Less Ordinary suffered a similar fate. The
following year, she played a recently divorced New Yorker in Richard
LaGravenese's Living Out Loud; starring alongside Danny DeVito, Queen
Latifah, and Martin Donovan, Hunter won positive reviews for her
performance. Hunter rounded out the 1990s with a minor role in the
independent drama Jesus' Son and as a housekeeper torn between a grieving
widower and Kiefer Sutherland's drama Woman Wanted.
Following a supporting role in the Coens' O Brother, Where Art Thou?,
Hunter took top billing in the same year's television movie Harlan County
War, an account of labor struggles among Kentucky coal-mine workers.
Hunter would continue her small screen streak with a role in When Billie
Beat Bobby, playing tennis pro Billie Jean King in the fact-based story of
King's famed exhibition match with Bobby Riggs; and as narrator of Eco
Challenge New Zealand before returning to film work with a minor role in
the 2002 drama Moonlight Mile. The following year found Hunter drawing
favorable reviews for her role in the otherwise critically maligned
redemption drama Levity. Also in 2003, Hunter had a supporting role in the
acclaimed film Thirteen for which she received a Best Supporting Actress
Oscar nomination.
In 2004, Hunter starred alongside Brittany Murphy in the romantic satire
Little Black Book, and the same year lent her voice to the animated film
The Incredibles as the voice of Helen Parr, a.k.a. the superheroine
Elastigirl. In 2005, Hunter starred alongside Robin Williams in the black
comedy-drama The Big White.
Hunter became an executive producer, and helped develop a starring vehicle
for herself with the TNT cable-network drama Saving Grace, which premiered
in July 2007. For her acting, she received a Golden Globe Award
nomination, two Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, and an Emmy Award
nomination. On May 30, 2008 Hunter received a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame.
For many years, Hunter was in a relationship with actor Arliss Howard. She
was married to Polish cinematographer Janusz Kamiński from May 20, 1995
until their divorce on 21 December 2001. Since 2001, she has been in a
relationship with American actor Gordon MacDonald, with whom she
co-starred in Marina Carr's By the Bog of Cats in a 2001 run at the San
Jose Repertory Theater, and later in a 2004 West End production of the
same play. In January 2006, Hunter's publicist announced that Hunter had
given birth to the couple's twins at the age of 47; Entertainment Weekly
later reported that the twins were boys. In a 2009 interview, Hunter
stated to TV Guide that she does not discuss the children with media.
Hunter's cousin is Tim Salmon, former right fielder and designated hitter
of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim major league baseball team. |
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Holly Hunter - Personal Quotes |
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Acting, for me, is the last
vestige of doing something that I would like to feel really naive
about. - Interview, November 1995.
[on the importance of rehearsal for Thirteen (2003)] : I mean, some
movies I walk in, "Hi, nice to meet you", we get in bed and we do a
love scene. And that does happen. That happened with me with Billy
Crudup on Jesus' Son (1999). Actors talk about that a lot, but it's
not uncommon. And we could not have done Thirteen (2003) that way.
It would not have worked.
I always feel that I am the advocate for my character. More than
anyone else on the set, including the director. I'm there to protect
my character, in a way.
I often get asked to direct and I've never taken anyone up on it. It
would be very interesting and I would learn so much. But it's a very
confrontational job - I mean, directors are forced to confront
themselves, and I don't think there's really a way to prepare for
the pressure of directing. And I have seen quite a few good people
crash and burn at the job. Nervous breakdowns, crying, screaming
fits - people buckle, so it's always scared me. But it's intriguing.
It just seems that abortion rights never ceases to be a hot topic.
It's a shame. It feels to me an anachronism. I mean, why are we
still talking about this? Why is this not just a woman's right,
period? I find it boring and very frustrating that it remains such a
high profile subject.
Actors do movies because you want to make a connection, you want an
audience to recognise themselves in what it is that you're
depicting. The portrait, you want it to be a reflection of some
aspect of humanity that people understand, that they see in their
own lives. And so, when a movie makes a connection like that,
there's simply nothing better. And in some ways, an Academy Award
does validate that actual hook-up.
I was trying to get as much experience as I could. But very early
on, I was always extremely particular. From the beginning, I was
never desperate. I did other things for money; you know, the normal,
boring stuff - I temped, I did waitressing. But I actually quit a
play early on in my career - it was one of the first things that I
ever got cast in, but I quit because there was something about it
that I didn't like. I didn't think the director was the right guy to
be directing it. So I've never felt that every situation was great
for me and therefore I would have to stay. To me, being creative is
a very fragile thing, the environment in which one can create is a
very particular one, and somehow I've always felt the need to be
very protective of that.
[on how her career as an actress began] : ....Joel and Ethan (Joel
Coen & Ethan Coen) had just finished the script of Raising Arizona
(1987), and they asked me to read it and said that they'd written
this part for me and would I be interested in doing it? So that was
the beginning of my feature film career.
I'm just always looking for the best stuff. And also, there are
things I want to do that I can't get - they want someone else.
Often, in the movie business, they need somebody who will garner box
office because they need to pay for the movie. So the people who are
in movies that make a lot of money are the people who most often get
cast in studio pictures. In my career, I've never been a box office
name. Granted, a couple of my movies have made a lot of money but
I'd do other movies which make very little money or they're not seen
that much.
Actors are beggars and gypsies, that's just the way it is. And in
many ways, I take what I can get. But I do search high and low for
stuff that interests me.
Well, I think that an Academy Award has a certain kind of business
shelf life. People have different speculations but definitely for a
couple of years, your price is raised and there are more plentiful
offers. Which only makes sense - it is a business. And the Academy
Awards is a business, it enhances everything when you win one. But I
think the most significant thing for me was, one, it was presented
to me by Al Pacino, which I just loved. And two, that it was given
to me for a role and an experience that I felt was a profound
influence in my life. I know this because I was nominated for The
Firm (1993) that same year and I don't feel the same way about The
Firm (1993) that I do about The Piano (1993). So if I'd won for The
Firm (1993) it would have been a whole different deal for me. I
never actually saw The Firm (1993), so for me it would have been
like... [grimaces] |
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Holly Hunter - Filmography |
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"Saving Grace" .... Grace
Hanadarko / ... (37 episodes, 2007-2009)
- Do You Love Him? (2009) TV episode .... Det. Grace Hanadarko
- Am I Gonna Die Today? (2009) TV episode .... Grace Hanadarko
- Looks Like a Lesbian Attack to Me (2009) TV episode .... Grace
Hanadarko
- Popcorn (2009) TV episode .... Det. Grace Hanadarko
- That Was No First Kiss (2009) TV episode .... Grace Hanadarko
(32 more)
The Big White (2005) .... Margaret Barnell
... aka Auch Morden will gelernt sein (Germany: TV title)
... aka Auch morden will gelernt sein (Germany: TV title)
... aka Le grand blanc (Canada: French title)
... aka The big White - Immer Ärger mit Raymond (Germany)
Nine Lives (2005) .... Sonia
The Incredibles (2004) (voice) .... Helen Parr/Elastigirl
Little Black Book (2004) .... Barb
Thirteen (2003) .... Melanie 'Mel' Freeland
Levity (2003) .... Adele Easley
Moonlight Mile (2002) .... Mona Camp
Eco Challenge New Zealand (2002) (TV) .... Narrator
When Billie Beat Bobby (2001) (TV) .... Billie Jean King
... aka Billie contre Bobby: La bataille des sexes (Canada: French
title)
Harlan County War (2000) (TV) .... Ruby Kincaid
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) .... Penny
... aka O' Brother (France)
Timecode (2000) .... Renee Fishbine, Executive
Woman Wanted (2000) .... Emma Riley
Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000) .... Rebecca
Waynon (segment "Fantasies About Rebecca")
Jesus' Son (1999) .... Mira
Living Out Loud (1998) .... Judith Moore
A Life Less Ordinary (1997) .... O'Reilly
Crash (1996/I) .... Helen Remington
Home for the Holidays (1995) .... Claudia Larson
Copycat (1995) .... M.J. Monahan
The Firm (1993) .... Tammy Hemphill
The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas
Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993) (TV) .... Wanda Holloway
The Piano (1993) .... Ada McGrath
... aka Leçon de piano, La (France)
Crazy in Love (1992) (TV) .... Georgie Symonds
Once Around (1991) .... Renata Bella
Always (1989) .... Dorinda Durston
Animal Behavior (1989) .... Coral Grable
Roe vs. Wade (1989) (TV) .... Ellen Russell/Jane Doe
Miss Firecracker (1989) .... Carnelle Scott
Broadcast News (1987) .... Jane Craig
End of the Line (1987) .... Charlotte
A Gathering of Old Men (1987) (TV) .... Candy Marshall
... aka Aufstand alter Männer, Ein (West Germany)
... aka Murder on the Bayou
Raising Arizona (1987) .... Edwina 'Ed' McDunnough
Blood Simple. (1984) (voice) (uncredited) .... Helene Trend
Swing Shift (1984) .... Jeannie
With Intent to Kill (1984) (TV) .... Wynn Nolen
... aka Urge to Kill
An Uncommon Love (1983) (TV) .... Karen
Svengali (1983) (TV) .... Leslie
The Burning (1981) .... Sophie |
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Holly Hunter - Related Links |
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Wikipedia: Holly Hunter
YouTube: Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter
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