Helen Hunt’s Mysterious Hollywood Disappearance

Brain BurstHelen Hunt’s Mysterious Hollywood Disappearance

For a few years in the ’90s, it seemed like Helen Hunt was destined to be a mainstay on the big and small screen alike forever. The actor landed her earliest movie role in 1977, playing a teenager in the disaster movie “Rollercoaster,” which featured a singularly weird plot about a man trying to bomb an amusement park ride. Hunt continued to act over the next decade, taking roles in films like “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” and “Peggy Sue Got Married,” plus the popular doctor drama “St. Elsewhere.” But it wasn’t until the ’90s, when Hunt earned a trifecta of great, memorable roles, that she truly became a household name.

Hunt’s big break came from “Mad About You,” a 1992 sitcom in which she played one half of a New York City newlywed couple opposite Paul Reiser. Later seasons focused on Hunt and Reiser’s characters’ (eventually successful) attempt to have a baby. “Mad About You” is an oft-forgotten part of the ’90s sitcom boom, but it earned a whopping 12 Emmys and originally ran for seven seasons. By 1996, Hunt was taking over the summer movie season with disaster romance thriller “Twister,” and a year later, she won an Oscar for her part in James L. Brooks’ “As Good As It Gets.”

The late ’90s doesn’t mark the end of Hunt’s career by any measure, but it does mark a crescendo in her fame that led the actor to start thinking consciously about how famous she wanted to be. She would appear in plenty of major roles in the years that followed — in “Cast Away,” “Pay it Forward,” and “What Women Want,” to name a few — but Hunt told The Guardian in 2022 that she was slightly uneasy with the level of attention that brought paparazzi to her literal doorstep. “There were a couple of years when I was a little spooked,” she told the outlet. “I was afraid that I could never unring that bell.”

Hunt’s solution to the matter was simple: “I just became very boring.” She’s well aware that Hollywood stars aren’t typically known for trying to become less famous, but it clearly worked for her. “There are some people who will live more exciting lives and keep going at that level — and it’s their whole life, wherever they go, forever,” she said. “I think by the 130th picture of me in my khaki pants with my yoga mat, that picture’s worth nothing!” There were plenty of other stars paparazzi could


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