E-mail a friendHolly Hunter
airdate July 2, 2008
Since her first starring role in Raising Arizona, Holly Hunter has appeared in numerous films, including Broadcast News, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Thirteen, which she also exec produced, and The Piano—for which the accomplished pianist actually performed the music and also won an Oscar. The Georgia native first acted in a 5th-grade play and pursued her career after graduating from Carnegie Mellon. A versatile actress, Hunter has also won two Emmys and is currently starring in TNT's Saving Grace.
Actress talks about her Southern accent and what it has meant for her career. (1:59)
Full Interview. (10:43)
Holly Hunter
Tavis: Pleased to welcome Holly Hunter to this program. The Oscar-winning actress has starred in so many notable films, including, of course, "The Piano," "Raising Arizona," and "The Firm." Of late, she's been enjoying success in TV, though, in her new - not new, but TNT series "Saving Grace." The show, which kicks off season two, so it's not new anymore, July 14th, airs Wednesday nights at 10:00. Here now, a scene from "Saving Grace."
[Clip]
Tavis: This show is so funny to me - maybe funny's the wrong word. You have a drinking problem, you have an attitude problem, you have behavioral issues, and yet you're good at what you do.
Holly Hunter: Uh-huh. That's nice, yeah, yeah. Well, I think the great thing about place Grace Hanadarko is that she feels like a real human being, but stepped up. She's real and more. But the complexity of the character is really what kind of keeps me compelled week after week to be excited about work.
Tavis: To come back to television, which is a grind, it must be a character - particularly one who's won an Academy Award, that really gives you something to bear down into.
Hunter: Yeah. When I read the script, frankly, I didn't care what form it was in. I didn't care if it was a feature film or it was a miniseries or it was episodic. I really, really wanted to investigate this life, because I don't feel that Grace is easily nameable. I feel in a way that she kind of transcends easy description, really. And the sense of humor that's in the show also, it's such a kick to get to play. In the second season, I think, we're really kind of investigating how much fun the cops can have at work and at play.
Tavis: Does she have a funny side? A humorous side?
Hunter: Oh, yeah. I think this girl really likes to have fun.
Tavis: I read once that - and I think this ties back into what you were saying a moment ago - I read once somewhere where you said you see yourself as an advocate for your characters. What'd you mean by that? I think I get it, but I want to ask.
Hunter: Well, I feel like I'm the person who's going to - I'm there for my character. I'm playing the character but there are so many priorities on a movie set, there are so many priorities about sound and picture and camera and lighting, and if you're on a location noise, the environment, extras, the time, the schedule, we're losing the light, what we've got to finish, what we have to accomplish in this day, and I am the sole person there to represent who I'm playing.
So it's kind of an inside-outside job. I am the character, but I also protect - I am the protector of the character as well. And that's kind of what I feel. I'm not exactly sure, I can't remember who I picked that up from, but I picked it up along the way.
Tavis: Along the way, speaking of this journey you've been on, along the way, how many times have you ever been told, has anybody had the nerve since you won the Academy, to ask you to lose that accent? Because you don't try to hide it.
Hunter: Well, I've played some characters who are not southern, and I don't know, that's never been a real issue for me in my career.
Tavis: I ask the question because you're awfully good at what you do, but there are people who spend careers trying to get rid of accents so they can work. You have worked and done some high quality work, and -
Hunter: Well, I have to say I do so love the different accents around the country. I do so love them, I'm a little afraid that they're going to go away, that they're going to be homogenized into this less kind of potent sound that the people who live in Boston and Vermont and New Orleans and even in Minnesota. All of those accents, I don't want them to become kind of - I don't want their edges to be taken off.
Tavis: Do you like yours, or is there one that you would trade because you like it better than yours? (Laughter)
Hunter: That's an interesting question. I do like mine. Actually, I like - when I go home, I like how people sound in that part of the South. There are parts of the South whose accents -
Tavis: And you're from Georgia.
Hunter: Yeah. There are accents that I think are less attractive, but I do love the Boston sound. I love the Maryland sound. I even love the Pittsburgh sound. There are very few accents that I dislike, just because it's such a particular - it reflects a place so much.
Tavis: You've done so many things now, and again, I'm juxtaposing your being now on this grind of the television schedule, the movies that you've done, the awards that you've won, the Emmys and the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards and that kind of stuff. You started acting when, how old were you, roughly, when you got into the business?
Hunter: Well, really high school.
Tavis: High school, okay. (Laughter) So is this where, in your career, you thought you'd be right about now? I guess it's another way of asking are you happy with this body of work that you're building, with the progress you've made up to this point in this career since high school?
Hunter: Well, that's a complicated question because my career has been filled with kind of epic experiences. Working with people who were born to direct, they should direct, and I got to work with them in that capacity. And I can think of Jim Brooks and Joel and Ethan Cohn and Jane Campion, just off the top of my head, are people who I said, "You are doing what you are meant to do."
And at the same time, I've also had grand spaces of time pass in between jobs, some of which I've really enjoyed because I probably like time off more than a lot of actors, and then some of them were not by choice, it was just a lack of opportunity that was out there for me. But that's kind of always been the case with me. From the beginning of my career, there's always been spaces of time when I haven't worked.
Tavis: You said two things now that I want to go back and get. One, the space of time - these spaces of time that you've had, to your point, some by chance, some by choice, if I can paraphrase it that way, chance and choice.
Hunter: Right, right. Better than me, actually, that was good.
Tavis: No, no, no, I'm just paraphrasing - never as good as the quote. That said, you like these periods of time off better than most actors, to your earlier point, for what reason?
Hunter: I really like the drift. I kind of - I like the drift. I like a certain lack of plan, and a schedule, I can flourish under a schedule and I really flourish without one - truly without one. So my life in New York, and New York is a good drifting city. You can -
Tavis: Get lost.
Hunter: Yeah, you can kind of get lost and go from one thing very spontaneously to the next, because it's a walking town. So you really experience things firsthand.
Tavis: In these spaces by chance or by choice, though, particularly the ones by choice, ever any fear or trepidation that if you stayed away too long, although you flourish with this no schedule, this no-agenda lifestyle, that if you stay away too long, we'd forget who you are? That you can't make your way back?
Hunter: No. No, I've never been that - I've never been afflicted with that, and I'm glad. That's never happened. The reason why I've really wanted to go back to work often is because of money. You know, like, where's that coming from?
Tavis: That's a good reason. (Laughter) You've got to eat, and your kids, yeah. Not a bad reason to go back to work.
Hunter: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And at the same time, when I'm at work I'm kind of - I can hover around a certain kind of ecstasy. Work does make me very happy. (Laughter) And it's true. And not working is kind of - that's a little ecstatic as well. But a little more laid back, a little more laid back. Work is not really a laid-back thing, as you know. In television, there's nothing much laid back about it.
Tavis: The last one, you talk about these directors, the Cohn brothers and others, Jim Brooks, who were born to direct. This is what you said to them they were born to do. So is this what you were born to do? Have you figured that out yet?
Hunter: I truly feel like I'm doing what I should be doing. For whatever reason, I feel built to do this. I do.
Tavis: And the purpose of that for you is? I understand that this is what I am born to do. For what purpose, I'm asking now.
Hunter: To express the particular. To express the detail. In the detail is the universe, I strongly believe that. The more fully something is examined and realized and kind of really honed in on to its most minute dimension, I think that's what is most recognizable. If it's horrible, if it's delightful, if it's funny, if it's - the humanity lies in that, in that examination.
Tavis: I'll take that. You know the show - "Saving Grace." You know the network - TNT. You know the star - Holly Hunter. What an honor to have you on the program.
Hunter: Thanks.
Tavis: Nice to see you.
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