Helen Hunt: American Actress and Director
Helen Hunt is an accomplished actress who has appeared in many movies and TV shows. Additionally, she is also an experienced director, having directed two films such as Bobby and Then She Found Me.
Hunt launched her acting career on television, appearing in popular series such as Mad About You and St. Elsewhere. Since then, she has made several film appearances such as Twister, Cast Away, Pay It Forward, What Women Want, and Bobby.
Helen Hunt’s Biography
Helen Hunt is an esteemed actress who has garnered many awards for her performances. A strong supporter of Hillary Clinton, Hunt also participated in the Women’s March. Not to mention, Helen is stunningly beautiful with an exquisite body. Her mother was a photographer while her father, Gordon Hunt was a renowned director and acting coach.
Her early roles included small parts on classic television shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Swiss Family Robinson, where she made several guest appearances. Later she starred in the 1973 TV movie Pioneer Woman before regularly appearing on television series like Intolerable Cruelty and The Bionic Woman.
She continued her acting career throughout the ’80s, appearing in films like Peggy Sue Got Married and Trancers as Rose Pondell. Additionally, she made regular appearances on Bob Roberts as Bob Roberts was her regular show.
Hunt was featured in four films during 2000, including Richard Gere’s romantic comedy Dr. T & the Women and Castaway where she played his girlfriend on an uninhabited island – two huge box office successes for which Hunt played an outstanding role.
Helen Hunt earned two Sundance awards for her independent film The Sessions. Later that same year, she directed an episode of Californication and appeared as a sex therapist working with a man in an iron lung in Ride.
Helen Hunt’s Television Debut
After playing minor roles on television, Helen Hunt began making waves in film. She gained notoriety for playing punk rock girl in the Sci-fi movie Rollercoaster; daughter of a divorced Army brat in Francis Ford Coppola’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun; graduate student assigned to care for chimpanzees used for secret Air Force experiments in Project X; as well as roles in Only You, Waterdance Drama and Bob Roberts mockumentary.
Mad About You propelled Hunt into fame. Starring alongside Paul Reiser and running from 1992-1999, this series earned her four consecutive Emmy Awards during that timeframe – along with co-writing, producing, and directing several episodes herself.
After Mad About You, Hunt went on to appear in various small and medium-budget films aimed at teens. She made headlines for her performance as the single mother in As Good as It Gets (1997) which earned her an Academy Award nomination and box office success. Hunt played an excellent yet controversial character as Jack Nicholson’s misanthropic author with whom she forms an intriguing love/hate relationship – an impression which audiences were quick to latch onto as critics applauded Hunt’s role and movie ticket sales surged accordingly.
In 2000, Helen Hunt appeared in What Women Want and Cast Away which were box-office successes. Hunt then focused more on her directorial career with Then She Found Me (2007) being her directorial debut despite not meeting with commercial or critical success.
Helen Hunt’s Film Debut
Hunt’s career started to blossom during the 1980s, appearing in various studio films aimed at teenage audiences such as Trancers and Girls Just Want to Have Fun. She played Bill: On His Own as his daughter as well as being featured in Desperate Lives by Madeline Kahn where she appears as a PCP user who jumps out a window while high. Additionally, she made appearances in Only You Again as well as Project X drama and Bob Roberts mockumentary films.
George Segal stars as Harry Calder, an amusement park safety inspector assigned to track down an amusement park bombing suspect who has targeted rollercoasters across the country. Rollercoaster marked one of the first films to use Sensurround technology for thrill ride scenes; theater seats vibrated when rollercoaster rides happened during scenes in the theater. Unfortunately, audiences did not react well to Rollercoaster, perhaps due to mislabeling as a standard disaster flick and loss of interest in such movies as Earthquake and Towering Inferno which had diminished such audiences’ appreciation of these types of films in general.
Hunt made her big break as an actress in 1996 when she appeared alongside Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets and earned both critical and audience praise. By 2000, Hunt was also featured in Pay It Forward, Dr. T and the Women, Cast Away, and an independent film she wrote and directed called The Sessions (in which she plays a sex therapist working with someone confined to an iron lung).
Helen Hunt Won an Oscar
Helen Hunt has only made a handful of movies since winning an Academy Award, yet her acting talents remain undiminished. She made an unforgettable impression in Stealing Home as an investigative reporter; then two years later starred as his wife in Next of Kin. Throughout the 1990s she made multiple TV appearances such as Mad About You before making an impactful statement as an investigative reporter investigating sexual violence against women in World on Fire.
In 1996, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of a single parent dealing with bills, an ailing child, and an intrusive mother in As Good as It Gets, opposite Jack Nicholson. For this performance, she won both a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award.
As Good as It Gets is an unexpectedly entertaining romantic comedy that blends several different storylines into one movie. All the actors – Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall, Greg Kinnear as Simon the Frail, and Verdell the Dog… – combine beautifully for an engaging viewing experience.
Helen Hunt first made headlines with her performance in The Sessions, an independent drama that won two awards at Sundance Film Festival 2012. Also that year, Hunt directed an episode of Californication which she then wrote and directed herself. Subsequently, she took center stage again as one of its leads in the 2014 film Ride which she also wrote and directed herself.
Helen Hunt Won an Emmy
Helen Hunt first became widely renowned during the ’90s with her role as Jamie Buchman on Mad About You. This role earned Hunt four consecutive Emmy nominations and two wins as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Additionally, she won one Golden Globe and three American Comedy Awards. Additionally, she directed several movies herself.
She first made her feature film debut in 1977’s Rollercoaster and went on to have supporting roles in such films as Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Peggy Sue Got Married (starring Kathleen Turner), and Next of Kin with Patrick Swayze. In 1996 she scored her biggest breakthrough when starring with Bill Paxton in Twister; one year later, she achieved critical acclaim when appearing alongside Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets.
Since her time on Mad About You, Hunt has continued to appear in various television shows and movies. She wrote, produced, directed, and starred as a mother who follows her son to California after dropping out of college in Ride (2014); most recently she played high school volleyball coach in the inspirational true story The Miracle Season (2018) as well as writing/directing more movies – as well as having an appearance in forthcoming series The Night Clerk.
Helen Hunt Directed The Sessions (2012) and Ride (2014)
Ben Lewin’s 2012 erotic comedy-drama The Sessions, featuring Helen Hunt and John Hawkes as Mark O’Brien (played by Helen Hunt) who hire sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene to help him lose his virginity, explores sexuality in an adult and sensuous manner; discussions or depictions of sexual acts never become sexy or gross; instead, it builds towards natural peaks until reaching them.
Hunt’s directorial skills were made apparent in Ride, her debut feature film that depicts her as an intense single mother with an adorable son and their shared passions of writing and surfing. Hunt demonstrates her strength both on screen and behind it – something few directors are capable of.
The film opens with a beautiful scene of Hunt sitting against a door, quickly rising and tiptoeing away when her half-asleep toddler emerges to use the restroom. She quickly returns, hand resting gently on her thighs. Hunt maintains this delicate balance throughout the movie by creating characters who feel authentic and genuine; its only flaw lies in overusing soliloquies to convey emotions, which may become irritating after some time; nevertheless, fans of Hunt will certainly enjoy this film as it manages to remain captivating and moving despite this flaw; fans must check this film out!
