HOLLY HUNTER
THE OSCAR WINNER SHINES AS AN ON- AND OFFSCREEN MOM
The Oscar winner embraces her age and her comeback role in The Big Sick.
It’s been 30 years since Holly Hunter shot to stardom in 1987’s Raising Arizona and Broadcast News, and she’s only getting better with age. “I’m still learning all the time,” the Oscar winner told Closer at the premiere of her acclaimed new film, The Big Sick. “Humility is endless. It’s in the job training.” So what’s the greatest lesson she’s picked up? “I don’t know. I think...” she says, with a long pause, “probably to be patient.”
Her patience has paid off. After keeping a low profile in recent years while searching for the right roles — “I have never been an easy fit,” she says. “I’m a leading-lady character actor” — she’s earning awards buzz again for her turn as the fiercely protective mother of a comatose young woman in The Big Sick. “There was something in the character that really appealed to Holly,” director Michael Showalter tells Closer. “She’s tender, funny
and really complex.”
The same could be said of Holly, 59. For The Big Sick, she drew on her real-life role as mom of twin sons Press and Claude, 11, with longtime boyfriend Gordon MacDonald. “I wanted very much to express a really healthy relationship between a parent and a child,” she explains, “and how that can evolve over time.”
MISS FIRECRACKER
Holly has undergone her own evolution since growing up as the youngest of seven siblings on a farm in Conyers, Ga. She’s proudly held on to her Southern accent for many of her roles — although she didn’t speak in her Oscar-winning turn as a mute in 1993’s The Piano. “She’s always looked at her accent as a tool in her acting belt, not a detriment,” says a friend.
As she’s grown older, she also has looked at her age as a boon to her work. “I’ve always been used to a certain amount of struggle,” she says, “and that prepared me wonderfully for a mature age.”
The same holds true for her personal life. She decided to become a mom at 47, after her six-year marriage to cinematographer Janusz Kaminski ended in 2001. She and Gordon “went to several fertility doctors before they were successful,” an insider says. “It was the happiest moment of Holly’s life when her boys were born.”
She protects her sons’ privacy, and by raising them in NYC, “She’s been able to give them a great childhood without all the Hollywood trappings,” the insider says. “They’ve always been boisterous, and Holly never tried to temper that — she loves it!”
After all, no one ever accused Holly of being a shrinking violet, either. “Sometimes, I might be a little hard to take,” she admits. But don’t expect her to change. “With longevity comes, ‘Nothing is going to kill me; I cannot irreparably damage my career,’” she explains. “Those days are over. The most I can sustain are fender-benders.”
— Bruce Fretts, with reporting by Katie Bruno and Lexi Ciccone
“My career has never
been a vertical thing. It’s always been a bit difficult.”
— Holly