After endearing herself to television audiences via the 1990s classic Mad About You, Helen Hunt achieved true Hollywood stardom thanks to her breakout role in the blockbuster Twister. The peak of her career success came when she received the Academy Award for Best Actress thanks to her turn alongside Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. Around the turn of the millennium, Helen Hunt stopped showing up in films as much. Today, her life is much duller than when she was a big-name celebrity. Join Facts Verse as we explore how Helen Hunt is 59, and her life is just plain boring now.
Helen Hunts Life Is Surprisingly Boring
Imagine being a performer with an Academy Award provides an endless thrill, but this isn’t the case for Helen Hunt. In 1997, the actress gave a performance that took the world by storm. She appeared alongside Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets, and the film swept the Oscars. A year after making her breakout turn on the big screen in 1996’s Twister. Helen is one of the biggest stars on the planet. Many imagined that a long and illustrious career awaited the actress, but this didn’t end up being the case. Instead, Helen spends most of her time nowadays doing such mundane things as yoga. According to the former celebrity, she prefers to stay out of the spotlight. However, that doesn’t mean that she retires.
Helen Hunt is 59 years old, and she’s still working whenever she wants to. Recently, she performed on the London stage in a production by the name of Eureka Day. The play was written back in 2018, but it has plot elements that many feel coincidentally foreshadowed the COVID-19 pandemic. In the play, the school forces to debate the topic of vaccinations as a result of a mumps outbreak. Unsurprisingly, the play becomes more popular after the real-life pandemic and Helen Hunt’s name boosts its profile even more. The play performs in Berkley, California.
Helen loves performing on the stage. She claims that viewing theatrical performances from a young age is what draws her to become an actress. Her father worked in theatre as both an acting coach and a director. He passes away in 2016, and his death took a toll on the actress. Helen relishes her opportunity to take to the London stage via Eureka Day, she continues to star in films sporadically. In 2013, she receives a second Academy Award nomination for her performance in an independent film, “The Sessions”. This time around, the actress didn’t win. However, that kind of recognition isn’t what the actress focuses on as of late.
Helen Became a Household Name on Television
Film and theatre may be the mediums wherein Helen Hunt spends her time as a performer. But, television is where the actress catches her first big break. Beyond this, she continues to appear on television sporadically. Recently, she even appeared in a modern revival of the program that first made her a household name. Before success on the big screen, Helen endears herself to television as one of the stars of Mad About You.
Mad About You premiers in 1992, and follows Helen Hunt as one half of an always-bickering, yet also loving, couple. The show comes during a television renaissance. It is when shows like Seinfeld and Friends are making audiences take the medium more seriously than ever before. Whereas television stars in decades prior had a harder time making the transition from the small screen to cinemas, the feat proved much easier for television stars in the 1990s. Like Friends’ Jennifer Anniston, Helen Hunt was a television superstar that became a bigger deal once she made her way onto the big screen.
Helen Hunt first made a name for herself on the big screen in 1996’s Twister. Though the film was directed by Dutch filmmaker Jan de Bont, it’s producer Steven Spielberg’s fingerprints that are most visible on the storm-chasing blockbuster. The film was a massive success for Amblin Entertainment, doing for tornadoes what Jurassic Park did for dinosaurs. It also proved that Helen had what it took to entertain cinema audiences, and producers took notice. Not longer after the film’s successful launch, Helen would be offer a role that would rocket her into Hollywood’s elite.
As Good As It Gets Made Helen a Hollywood Superstar
In 1997, Helen Hunt appeared alongside Jack Nicholson in James L. Brooks’ As Good As It Gets. Writer/director James L. Brooks was an established Hollywood veteran, and As Good As It Gets was far from being the first of his films to sweep the Academy Awards after their release. During the 1980s, James helmed both Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News. Broadcast News was a film that took advantage of James’ experience in television, and the filmmaker’s role as a television producer would come to the forefront in the 1990s via his work on The Simpsons. As Good As It Gets represents a step back into the director’s chair for the Hollywood renaissance man, and it is a monumental success. It proved that both he and Jack Nicholson still had it, though it did even more for Helen Hunt.
As someone that had only been appearing in major films for around a year, Helen Hunt was incredibly nervous to share the screen alongside a Hollywood legend such as Jack Nicholson. According to the actress, she had feared that the veteran performer was going to be as eccentric as the characters that he so often played. When it comes time for her to actually sit down with the man and work with him, it surprises her to learn that he was actually incredibly down to earth. She claims that Jack had a similar method for deducing character methods as she did, and the two quickly bonded as costars. In more ways than one, it seemed as if Helen was now part of the upper echelon.
Helen Hunt nabbed the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1998, and her performance in As Good As It Gets led to even more lucrative film roles coming the actress’ way. Around the turn of the millennium, she could be found appearing in such box-office hits as Pay It Forward, Cast Away, and What Women Want. However, not longer after this, Helen unceremoniously faded away from the forefront of celebrity culture. Given that there was no major incident that got the actress banished from the entertainment industry, many have wondered what exactly happened to make Helen disappear. As it turns, out, she’s still around! It’s just that she likes to keep a much smaller profile than she used to.
Helen Hunt Is Surprisingly Still At It
Helen Hunt still continues to act, including in a recent reboot of Mad About You. In 2007, the actress also made a successful transition behind the cameras with her directorial debut Then She Found Me. According to the actress, she had spent a decade trying to get the film made before it’s eventual release. Though the film isn’t as popular as the blockbusters that she appeared in during her heyday, she’s proud of it. Several years later, in 2014, she followed it up with another directorial effort, this time by the name of Ride.
Besides the reboot of Mad About You, Helen Hunt also tried to get another nostalgic project off the ground in recent years. The actress claimed that she pitched a sequel to Twister in 2020, but that producers weren’t interested. The reboot would’ve starred her in Daveed Diggs, with her reprised her role from the original picture and Daveed being a new addition. Helen wanted to direct the project, but producers sadly turned it down. It may be for the best that Helen continues to keep a relatively low profile, as her recent appearances in the media haven’t been all that well received. It seems people are starting to have a problem with her looks, and there are rumors of botched plastic surgery.
When Helen Hunt took to the screen in the recent Mad About You reboot, it was a bittersweet event for fans. They enjoyed seeing the actress back in her iconic role, but something seemed different about her. All actresses age, but Helen doesn’t seem to have fallen victim to normal aging. Instead, many have speculated that Helen got plastic surgery that didn’t quite turn out right for her. In 2019, the actress suffered a car accident. This car accident spurred talk that the performer was gravely injured, and some have put these two talking points together to hypothesize that the accident is somehow responsible for Helen’s change in appearance.
Despite rumors, Helen’s camp claims that the 2019 car accident that the actress suffered didn’t result in any serious injuries. Because of this, one must assume that the actress’s appearance has changed for other reasons. She may look a little off, but many are still glad that Helen chooses to continue to perform. The Mad About You reboot was only an eight-episode limited series, but we haven’t seen the end of Helen just yet. Still, her days of superstardom are well over.
Helen Hunt could’ve maintained an illustrious Hollywood career, but it seems that she chose not to. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Helen Hunt is still acting, and that she’s also a director now? Comment down below!
