In the eyes of some, As Good As It Gets was as good as it got for Helen Hunt. Despite starring in a hit NBC sitcom, Mad About You, and a cult disaster movie, Twister, it was the release of the acerbic romcom in 1997 – in which Hunt’s waitress and single mother forms a love-hate relationship with Jack Nicholson’s misanthropic author – that saw her career truly go supernova. As Good As It Gets brought overnight fame and a best actress Oscar. And yet, the decades since have seen if not a disappearance of that fame, at least an erosion, with few of her films bothering the box office or the Academy (although she did land a best supporting actress nomination for 2012 indie film The Sessions).
Helen Hunt isn’t of that mindset, though, because As Good As It Gets gave her exactly what she didn’t want: fame. “There were a couple of years when I was a little spooked,” she admits when asked about paparazzi outside her house. “I was afraid that I could never unring that bell.” So how did she cope with the media assault? “I just became very boring,” she says matter-of-factly.
