Holly Hunter looked like a deer in headlights on a recent visit to Tavis Smiley’s show. Not only didn’t she crack a smile when introduced, she hardly moved a muscle. I couldn’t tell if she was scared to death or just bored. During the interview, she made little eye contact with the host. It felt like she just didn’t want to be there. She, of course, answered her questions with her signature stutter/mumble…and the accent was ever-present – so much so that it became a topic of discussion. “It’s never been an issue,” she offered and added she so loves the “different accents of the country.”
Hunter did loosen up a bit when talking about her show Saving Grace. She commented that “the complexity of character is really what kind of keeps me compelled week after week to be excited about my work.”
Hunter takes her job very seriously and sees herself as an advocate for the characters she plays, “I’m the sole person there to represent who I’m playing. I am the character, but I’m also the protector of the character as well.” This is a good thing for Hunter, as she said, “I truly feel like I’m doing what I should be doing, built to do it. To express the particular, to express the detail. In the detail is the universe.”
Pretentious? Yes. Delusions of grandeur? Yes. Perhaps that’s why we sensed she felt she was too good to be there…as if she was “gracing” us with her presence.
I will give her that by the end of the interview, she had relaxed, opened up and I felt like there was a real person there…finally.