Helen Hunt starred in the 1996 hit film, “Twister, which became the second highest-grossing film of the year, but she said she almost called it quits on filming.
Hunt said she was gearing up to start shooting the film when the unexpected happened. “I injured my knee right before we started,” Hunt said, according to a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. The 61-year-old star explained that for a moment, she contemplated quitting the movie altogether.
“And so a week or two before, I remember sitting in Oklahoma with ice on my knee and calling my agent and going, ‘Am I going to be able to pull this off?’” Hunt recalled.
ATLANTA MAY 10: Woody Harrelson, Helen Hunt, Jane Fonda and Bill Paxton attend Twister premiere Benefiting G-CAPP at The Fox Theater in Atlanta Georgia, May 10, 1996 (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 29: Helen Hunt attends the 2021 Gotham Awards Presented By The Gotham Film & Media Institute at Cipriani Wall Street on November 29, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
She ended up pulling through, and the film proved to be a huge success, but the famous actress admitted she had sincere thoughts of quitting before production even began in Oklahoma, according to Entertainment Weekly.
“So, for me, it was just like ‘Run anyway’ because I had no other choice,” Hunt told the publication.
Hunt played the leading role in the film that follows a group of amateur storm chasers as they try to navigate the use of a tornado research device while battling a severe tornado outbreak.
LOS ANGELES – OCTOBER 1983: Actress Helen Hunt poses for a portrait in October 1983 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty Images)
Hunt starred alongside Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz, Lois Smith, Alan Ruck and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and noted that it was a “very physical movie,” which is far different than how films are made now. That made her injury even more concerning at the time.
“Looking back, it’s all for the best that there wasn’t the technology to do it all on your laptop. Instead, they just pummeled the shit out of us, and it looks amazing,” Hunt said.
“So much of acting now is you’re looking at a piece of tape, or you’re looking at a green screen, or you’re looking at dots on someone’s face, and someone has to tell you, ‘Well, what’s going to be here later is this thing’s going to come around the corner..” she told Entertainment Weekly.(RELATED: Jeremy Renner Makes Startling Admission About The Future Of His Acting Career)
“A lot of what we reacted to was really happening. And while it made it messier, it made it easier to act,” Hunt said.
Hunt’s interview was ahead of the release of the sequel, “Twisters.” She will not be returning to reprise her role.
