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 One might imagine that being a performer
with an Academy Award under your belt would provide 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. Only a
year after making her breakout turn on the big screen in 1996’s Twister, Helen was 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’s necessarily retired.
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, a school is forced to debate the topic
of forced vaccinations as a result of a mumps outbreak. Unsurprisingly, the play became more
popular after the real-life pandemic that oddly mirrored it, and Helen Hunt’s name being attached
has only boosted it’s profile even more. The play was originally performed in Berkley, California.
Helen loves performing on the stage, and she claims that viewing theatrical performances
from a young age is what first drew her to want to become an actress. Her father worked in theatre
as both an acting coach and a director. He passed way in 2016, and his death took
a toll on the actress. Though Helen relished her recent opportunity to take to the London
stage via Eureka Day, she also continues to star in films sporadically. In 2013,
she received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance in
an independent film by the name of The Sessions. This time around, the actress didn’t win. However,
that kind of recognition isn’t what the actress has been focused on as of late.
Helen Became a Household Name on Television Film and theatre may be the mediums wherein
Helen Hunt has spent most of her time as a performer, but television
is where the actress caught 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 finding success on the big
screen, Helen Hunt endeared herself to television audiences as one of the stars of Mad About You.
Mad About You premiered in 1992, and if followed Helen Hunt as one half of an always-bickering,
yet also loving, couple. The show came about during somewhat of a television renaissance
when shows like Seinfeld and Friends were 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 offered 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 represented a step back into the
director’s chair for the Hollywood renaissance man, and it was 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 came time for her to
actually sit down with the man and work with him, she was pleasantly surprised
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!