R.I.P. Anne Heche

[dws1982]

Her career never really recovered from the relationship with Ellen. I'm not quite sure why it hurt her in a way it didn't hurt Ellen. Ellen's show was never that highly-rated, while it was undeniably an important moment in television history, Ellen's character coming out was kind of a desperate show-saving ploy (which bought it an additional season), and while Ellen definitely had name recognition, Heche was the one who was in movies that people were seeing at the time, albeit mostly in supporting roles. But, partially due to homophobia, and partially due to something else--maybe it's the fact that Ellen's entire persona was built on being seen as nice and inoffensive (which it turned out she wasn't)--Heche was seen as a joke from the minute that relationship began. The fact that the projects she was attached to just after that--Six Days, Seven Nights, the much-hated Psycho remake (which is more interesting than it gets credited for being and which she is good)--and that her mental health issues in the years just ahead were very public really killed any chance she had at being a star. After 2000, she made fewer movies, and they either tended to be more obscure, and her roles tended to get smaller. Have not really seen much of her TV work, but I see that David E. Kelley cast her in a recurring role on Ally McBeal just after she had that very public mental health break in 2000. Kelley has done this with other actors (Robert Downey Jr most notably, around the same time) and I respect him giving chances to people who other producers would pass over.

Even under normal circumstances, I don't know that she would've became a big star, or would've gone beyond a character actress, because those 1997 roles show she was so gifted at playing such distinct characters: Not one of those characters is remotely like the other. She is the one redeeming aspect of I Know What You Did Last Summer, truly unnerving in a way the film never is, and while Donnie Brasco doesn't really give her a ton to do other than complain about neglect to Johnny Depp, she does it well. Wag the Dog is probably my favorite, both as a film and as a performance. (Probably my favorite Levinson film, too.) In terms of awards, the movie may have got hurt by the fluke of timing that made it seem a little too on-the-nose (but it was also a crowded year), but I like to think there was an alternate universe where Heche's political aide, who gets more and more exasperated at Dustin Hoffman as the movie goes on, was a Supporting Actress contender.

[Reza]

Horrific family issues and mental trauma plagued her throughout.

May she RIP.

[Sabin]

Anne Heche has been declared legally dead. Such a horrible death.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/a ... sh-aged-53

The artistic highpoint of her career was ironically the year of her tabloid zeitgeist, when in 1997 she went public with her relationship with Ellen and starred in Donnie Brasco and Wag the Dog (winning critic's prizes and generating Oscar buzz) as well as starring in the modestly successful Volcano. Afterwards, it felt like one failed high-profile project after another, which isn't surprising. She had a prickly energy that's not an easy fit for most projects. I think I had mistakenly considered her career basically over after her breakup with Ellen in 2000, but she worked consistently on a range of projects for the rest of her life. It's a shame she never quite found another window to really show what she was capable of.