The Hunt Is On

by Michael Fleming; photographed by Isabel Snyder

Oscar winner Helen Hunt recently sat down with Movieline's Michael Fleming to discuss the four movies she'll appear in during the next few months, starting with Robert Altman's Dr. T and the Women on October 13. In Dr. T, she stars with Richard Gere, and in Mimi Leder's Pay It Forward, which opens a week later, she shares the screen with fellow Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and the most talented 12-year-old in movies, Haley Joel Osment. Hunt's other leading men this year: Mel Gibson in Nancy Meyers' What Women Want and Tom Hanks in Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away.

All the hubbub is especially noteable since Hunt--who's been acting since the age of nine--hasn't been seen on the big screen since 1997's As Good As It Gets, when--oh yeah--she starred opposite Jack Nicholson and took home an Academy Award. For Fleming's full interview with Helen Hunt, pick up a copy of the November issue of Movieline magazine.

Fleming: How did "Mad About You" change you as an actress?
Hunt: I got in my bones the experience of working in a collaborative way of being willing to try something, knowing you'll get another shot if it doesn't work.

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There's something great about spending six days on a scene in certain films, there's also something great about making 26 shows a year, trying your best, then just moving on to the next one. It's a different creative muscle.

Fleming: It seems you have worked with a vengeance since the series ended. Was the ending of that obligation liberating?
Hunt: I was weeping at the end of it because I was going to miss everybody, but I was hugely relieved to have my life back. I spent seven years with those kind, creative people. We had births and deaths, marriages and divorces, and very few unhappy clashes. Those roundtable discussions at the end of every day were at the center of it. Playing the scenes with Paul, this weird thing we had together, was pretty special. I used to feel like, if there were just 10 shows a year, this would be the best, most creative job in the world. But we worked as hard as I worked on Pay It Forward, for 25 shows a year.

Fleming: What would you like to do now?
Hunt: I want to find parts that excite me, I want to work on the stage and I know I want to direct films. I want those three things. I'd like to do a play this spring, but if the best part of my career comes along and it's a movie, I'm going to do it. You have a plan and then you throw it out. You do the same thing as an actor. You have a plan and you prepare and then you absolutely tear that up and throw it out when you walk on the set.

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