Holly Hunter on Work, Life, and Saving Grace
From:
Lauren Barth
156 days 19 hours 31 minutes ago
To call Holly Hunter’s career impressive would be a major understatement. Her versatile resume spans more than 25 years, and includes eclectic roles in films like Raising Arizona, The Piano (for which she received an Academy Award,) and Thirteen. Now, Hunter amazes yet again as a thrill-seeking, sex-loving investigator who lives life to the fullest, embraces her wild side, and always saves the day on the TNT hit series Saving Grace.
How did you kick start your career when you first came to New York City in the early ‘80s?
When I first got to New York, I did nothing but extra work. I became a temporary professional extra. And it was a great way to make a living. I had no inhibitions. I was doing extra work for television. I was doing extra work for movies. It was a way to make a living that was not waiting tables. I have to say that after I did Broadcast News and it was successful, both, critically and in the box office, the very next thing I did was a TV movie-of-the-week. Because in the ‘80s, television was already expanding in terms of it not being a punishable place for feature-film actors. There was no segregation like there had been for television. However now the desegregation of television is complete, and I would say the reason why is cable. And you do have the occasional unbelievable story of George Clooney. But really cable changes the horizon.
Did you move to NYC because you wanted to be on stage?
I was interested in acting period. However I moved to New York. My imagination was slightly stunted. I was not a far-reaching, ambitious creature. I’m very ambition as a person, but not really – my ambition is much more in my work than in my career projectory. I wanted to be on stage. But I didn’t judge anything passed that.
Is there one specific highlight in your career – something you enjoyed as an actor or that you’re most proud of?
I had experiences that are unrepeatable, original experiences. You know, doing Raising Arizona, Broadcast News, The Piano … I mean throughout the course of my adult life, these are all experiences that I can’t compare with one another. They are original life-changing experiences. So, after I did The Piano, I didn’t say, “I’ll never have an opportunity like this again, why don’t I go kill myself.” I took it all as something that was fully enriching and made me richer.
How does it feel to be starring in this ground-breaking series at this stage of your career?
Few actors get unlimited number of opportunities like the one I have right now. And I’m aware of that and I’m grateful for that. Because I’ve been around now for a while. And I’ve had some mind-bending opportunities as an actor. There have been a handful. And this is definitely one of them.
What’s the dynamic like on set with your costars?
I love them. There’s real love there. I appreciate them. And I love them. We all work slightly differently one from the other. And I’ve learned stuff from them. I’ll steal stuff from them – how they approach their own work. It’s fantastic to see how they drive, and to learn stuff from that driving. It’s just the comfort level – the intimacy level – we all have with each other. It multiplied during the hiatus. And the fact is, the show is a success, and that amplifies the experience. When you are on something – when you are involved with something that’s seen by people, that exponentially enhances the experience of doing it.
What do you love about you character, Grace?
I think that Grace is an examination of a whole person. And Grace is one of the reasons I love fiction. All of us in our lives, we need a departure from our own lives to see humanity. We’re capable of a lot – we’re capable of great agony and great nightmare and great horror and great fun and great fantasy and great desire and great appetite. And I think as an artist that’s what I love it for.
What is in store for Grace’s love life? She seems to struggle in that aspect of life.
She has a lot of fun. Perceiving sex is fun – Grace has a lot of it. She is not conventional. Her desires for expressing herself as a woman is not conventional by society standards or by a physical code. She doesn’t live by those constraints. That’s one of the things that makes her the volatile, unpredictable, unharnassed creature that I perceive her to be.
