In the '90s, Helen Hunt was everywhere.
She starred in the long-running sitcom Mad About You, and Hollywood was, well, mad about
her.
But since the show's cancellation in 1999, we've heard less and less from the actress.
Here's what Helen Hunt's been up to since receding from the spotlight.
Highs and lows
It isn't like Hunt has stopped making movies since her prime Mad About You days.
It's just that, with a few exceptions, you may not have heard about them.
At the height of her career, Hunt was starring in films like 1997's As Good As It Gets, an
award-gobbling dramedy that pulled in almost $315 million dollars worldwide.
"Give me some sign you understand, or leave now.
Do you understand me?"
A year before that, she was in Twister, a disaster epic that grossed almost 500 million.
Right after Mad About You ended, she starred in 2000's What Women Want and Cast Away, which
were both smash hits worldwide.
"Thank you.
I appreciate that."
But then came starring roles in a sporadic string of smaller films that failed to impress
moviegoers or critics, such as Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion; A Good Woman,
an Oscar Wilde adaptation co-starring Scarlett Johansson; and Emilio Estevez's widely panned
Bobby, which centered on the day Robert Kennedy was assassinated.
In 2007, Hunt took her first shot at writing, directing and starring in a film with Then
She Found Me, an adaptation of the Elinor Lipman novel.
The film received mixed reviews, a limited release, and didn't stir up any award-season
buzz, but Hunt still returned to the director's chair several times in the decade that followed
— which is one reason fans haven't seen much of her on-screen lately.
Behind the camera
As Variety recaps, Hunt started by directing several episodes of Mad About You, but didn't
return to directing until 2007, with Then She Found Me.
After another long break, she started directing in earnest, focusing mostly on television.
She's overseen two episodes of ABC's primetime soap Revenge and one episode of NBC's breakout
hit This Is Us, just to name two of the half-dozen shows she's worked on in recent years.
She also wrote and directed a second movie, 2014's surfing comedy Ride, which received
mixed reviews.
Many critics noted that Hunt's acting chops still outshine her directorial prowess, even
as recently as 2012, when she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for The Sessions.
"I'll have a chardonnay."
"Me too."
"And a glass of red wine."
"May I see some ident—"
"They're for me."
"All of them?"
"It's a stressful time."
Return to TV
In 2017, Hunt joined the Fox show Shots Fired, a ten-episode miniseries about a black police
officer in North Carolina who kills an unarmed white man during a traffic stop.
The investigation into the incident reveals that the police are ignoring the murder of
a black teenager.
Hunt, who plays the governor of North Carolina, told the Television Critics Association how
great she felt about the incredibly timely and topical show, calling the cast "amazing."
Shots Fired is Hunt's first small-screen acting gig in more than a decade, but 2017 also marks
Hunt's return to film, with a part in Louis C.K.'s controversial I Love You, Daddy.
"China wants to come live with me for the rest of her senior year."
"Of course she wants to come live with you.
You have a giant apartment, and you have the Hamptons, and the plane."
"None of that is my fault."
Post-Oscar slowdown
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Hunt said that a big reason she shifted into low
gear after her late '90s boom was waning studio interest in the kind of movies that made her
a star and earned her an Oscar — the dreaded "dramedy," which Hunt calls her "least favorite
word", saying,
"When I wasn't getting acting jobs all the time that I liked, I was writing and writing
and writing.
Ten years of that."
This led to Then She Found Me, which Hunt admits was poorly timed, saying,
"I'd just been in the last big wave of movies about people talking to each other and trying
to love each other, so as that was shrinking, I was trying to make one of those movies."
In other words: both Hunt and the studios got sick of the kind of movies she was making
at the exact same time, so Hunt chose to focus more on her work behind the camera, only coming
out of acting "semi-retirement" here and there, when outside-the-box projects appealed to
her.
That makes sense, because ...
She can afford to be choosy
Even before her film career blew up, Hunt slowed her professional pace in the wake of
Mad About You, and one possible reason may well be the simplest: she's made a lot of
money.
She has absolutely no need to work anymore, unless she really wants to.
Hunt's wealth increased magnificently in May 1998, as she and Mad co-star Paul Reiser negotiated
pay raises from $250,000 an episode to an incredible $1 million per episode.
Though this only lasted them through the final season, those 22 episodes still netted both
of them $22 million bucks each.
That, plus Hollywood blockbuster money, has given her wealth beyond most anyone's wildest
dreams.
So the next time you're wondering why Helen Hunt isn't everywhere anymore, the answer
might just be: she doesn't have to be.
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