Mad About You
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$55 Million
"Good scripts are rare and it's hard to write a good part for a man or a woman. I have something very precious to do at home, so leaving home becomes a bigger decision. My daughter is eight now, so I feel that's different. I'm working quite a bit and that didn't feel right when she was six. Now it feels more right." Helen Hunt started acting age the age of 9 and since then has acquired an extensive body of work for which she's been lauded with accolades and awards.
While Helen Hunt may have become a household name on the hit television show Mad About You during its seven-season run, she'd been in the business long before that. Many years later, she's not only still acting, but has also added directing and screenwriting to her list of talents. Here's a closer look at this prolific actress's 40-plus-year career.
Born Into the Business
Helen Elizabeth Hunt was born on June 15, 1963 in Culver City, California. Many of her family members were in the entertainment business, including her father Gordon Hunt, a film, voice and stage director and acting coach.
When Hunt was three, her family moved to New York City. There, her father directed theater while Hunt reportedly attended multiple plays a week. By the age of nine, she'd decided on becoming an actress, and her first role came in 1973 on the television movie, Pioneer Woman. Other erly appearances by Hunt included The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bionic Woman, Amy Prentiss, The Fitzpatricks, It Takes Two and The Facts of Life.
A regular role on Swiss Family Robinson was one of Hunt's first big breaks in the business. The experience also informed her perspectives as a director later in life. "It's hard as a kid, because then one day you don't come back. I've been directing some episodes of a family show lately and look at these kids and feel really protective. 'Cause it isn't your family. It's a place of work. So I take special care when I work with young actors now."
Hunt enjoyed ongoing career success into her teen and young adulthood years, including 1985's teen comedy, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Looking back on the movie, which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker, Hunt said, "A lot of it was about hair. I had hair that went straight up. I had clips that we made from scratch." She also remembers her dance moves from the flick. "I think they were pretty awesome. I mean, there's no reason to go back and look. But let's just assume that they were awesome," she continued.
Hunt's other early noteworthy television roles included a recurring part on St. Elsewhere in 1992 as well as the lead on the 1983 television movie Quarterback Princess. Hunt also had supporting roles in movies such as Peggy Sue Got Married and The Waterdance.
Making It Big on Mad About You
It wasn't under Hunt took on the role of New York City career woman and wife Jamie Buckman on 1992's Mad About You that she achieved true star status. Funnily enough, Hunt's earliest impressions of Mad About You weren't positive ones. After meeting its co-creator (and her future co-star) Paul Reiser when he was writing the series, Hunt's first thought was, "I don't want to be in a sitcom playing someone's wife, that's just not what I want to do."
The character -- and show -- went on to exceed Hunt's expectations. Her portrayal of half of one of America's most-loved television couples alongside her television husband Reiser turned out to be a career-changer. Hunt went on to be nominated for a Best Actress Emmy for all seven of her years on the show, winning four times in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 Mad About You also gave Hunt the opportunity to try out directing. Not only did she direct several episodes of the program, she also helmed the series finale.
During and after Mad About You, Hunt had her pick of parts. In 1996, she did the disaster flick Twister, which became her biggest's box-office hit to date. Of the experience she later said, "It was terrifying every day. It was just at the beginning of everything being done on the computer, so it wasn't done on the computer. Every day it was like, 'What fresh hell is this? Oh. A hail machine. Fantastic.'"
A year later came another breakthrough moment for Hunt with what's now considered to be one of the greatest contemporary romantic comedies, 1997's As Good As It Gets. Her portrayal of Carol Connelly, a single mother caring for a chronically ill son, led to Golden Globe and Oscar awards for the actress in 1998. According to Hunt, co-writer and director James L. Brooks did not set out to write a famous rom-com, however. "I don't believe [Brooks] say it as a romantic comedy until halfway through the movie, and the genius of this particular director is that he allowed the movie to speak to him," Hunt later said.
What Women Want and Cast Away followed shortly after As Good As It Gets along with a series of other movie roles over the next decade and a half, including Dr. T & the Women, Pay it Forward, the Curse of the Jade Scorpion, A Good Woman, Bobby, The Sessions, Decoding Annie Parker, Soul Surfer, and The Miracle Season.
Hunt has also enjoyed success on the stage, including in Our Town, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night at New York's Lincoln Center. Said Hunt of her theater work, "I love going to plays, and I love being in plays. There is something that happens in that room that is out of control and unpredictable, especially when I did Our Town and was addressing three hundred people just like I'm talking to you guys, for page after page. So, if some kid is bored and yawns, and that happened, or someone is sobbing, which happened a lot with that play, or if I trip on my shoelace, that happened, and there's a certain excitement about that," she said.
Hunt also followed her directing dreams, and made her feature film directorial debut with 2007's Then She Found Me. Other directorial gigs followed, including 2014’s Ride, which Hunt also wrote and starred in. Hunt has sung the praises of the craft, and has suggested that it may actually suit her more than acting. "I love directing. It's probably closer to my personality. You're sitting here like, this solving problems. You're not naked in front of a bunch of strangers pouring your heart out. You know what I mean? So even though I enjoy acting, it's kind of nice to go to work and keep your clothes on," she joked.
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