Helen Hunt on a life in film

GH talks to Helen Hunt on the release of her directorial debut ‘Then She Found Me'. By Catherine Everett

Good Housekeeping catches up with Helen Hunt to celebrate the release of the romantic comedy ‘Then She Found Me', in which she co-stars and makes her directorial debut.  Adapted from Eleanor Lipman's best-selling novel, Hunt tells the touching story of April Epner, a vanity-free school teacher who longs for a baby following the death of her adopted mother and separation from her husband.


What made you want to direct?

My father's a director but I think the 10 year process of falling in love with the story was really the thing. I've always said that I'd only direct if I felt uniquely qualified to tell that particular story and that turned out to be true. By the time the movie was finished, I understood it in a way that nobody else could.

 

What made you choose this particular story?

People have asked me if the film is autobiographical and on the surface it's not - I'm not adopted and I don't have an adopted child. But the whole movie is a photograph of everything that's important to me - being a parent, being a daughter, love and betrayal and how they are inseparable. They are all things that matter to me and interest me.

 

Did you always know that you would act in the movie?

No, but I listened to a good piece of advice given to me by Warren Beatty. He has made many good movies that he's acted in so when I didn't know whether to be in the movie he said, ‘If you act in it there will be at least one person in it who understands it the way you do' and that was really true.

 

How much of the story came from the novel?

The character's wish for a baby isn't in the novel. What is, is this grown woman being found by her birth mother who is alternately lovely and horrible, intimate and then deceitful. I tried to make the movie with a draft which was very faithful to the book but I couldn't get it made so I had to sit with it and decide what was missing. My character's wish for a baby came from my own wish for a baby at that time.

 

It took 10 years to get the movie made, how did you manage to finally do it?

I asked someone who makes a lot of small films, ‘Who gets movie's made? I've had all these rejections.' And they said that it's the person who doesn't give up and so I didn't. I spent a long time working on the film and a lot of years asking people to pay for it and hearing ‘no' over and over again. There was a lot of elbow grease but I cared about the story enough to keep going.

 

You look very slim in the movie. Did you intend to lose weight for the part?

You try having a two year-old as well as directing and acting in a movie within 27 days! It doesn't exactly keep weight on. I didn't go out of my way to look thin but I wanted to look very simple and to play a woman who cares about many things but not what she's wearing or how her make-up looks.

 

What message did you want to convey to your audience?

The theme of the movie is that you can't really love without making peace with betrayal. You can't outsmart getting hurt in your life - I've certainly tried to do it and it just doesn't work. These characters are highly imperfect people who capable of hurting each other. I guess I wanted people to feel that they had some company in their own imperfection.

 

How do you manage to juggle having such a successful career as well as a family?

I love being with my daughter and I'm old enough to know that her childhood is going by very quickly. This is one movie and it took ten years to make but I don't leave home every day and work for 12 hours. It's very hard to get a movie made and there are long stretches when you're home but when you work it's all encompassing. I flew to London yesterday and I'm leaving tomorrow - that's how much I want to get home.

 

How did it feel to see the film on screen for the first time?

I thought it was going to be a little screening of about 200 seats but it was actually 2000. When the movie started it was out of focus and the volume was way too low and I thought ‘I'm going to die'. When they put it right the audience clapped, that's how out of focus it was. But by the end, there were 2000 people standing on their feet. It was just totally shocking to me. So at least in that room they got it and that was a big deal - I was stunned.

 

Will you ever go back to acting?

If I get a part I like and I can work close to home. There are actresses who line up movie after movie and have a gypsy life with their kids but I just don't have it in me. I hear stories about how children are better for moving around and seeing the world but I want to give my daughter consistency and I like it for myself. I've always been a home-girl at heart.

 

'Then She Found Me' is in cinemas from September 19

 

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