Helen Hunt makes RSC debut in Cherry Orchard with Branagh
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- Helen Hunt is making her Royal Shakespeare Company debut in The Cherry Orchard alongside Kenneth Branagh (as the self-made businessman Lopakhin) and Bill Pullman, directed by Tamara Harvey; she plays the returning aristocrat Madame Ranevskaya.
- Hunt traces her career to age nine, when she took an acting class her aunt attended; she credits her father — a film and stage director — with taking her to see Branagh's Henry V, which taught her verse could be "as exciting as any action movie."
- Her Oscar for As Good As It Gets opposite Jack Nicholson came alongside four Emmys and four Golden Globes; in her acceptance speech she namechecked the other contenders and singled out Judi Dench's Mrs Brown as work that couldn't fairly be compared.
- Hunt cites former RSC teachers Cicely Berry and John Barton as influences and says that working on Shakespeare and Chekhov means "you're never going to be good enough to get bored."
- On Hollywood's focus on women's age and bodies, Hunt says she turned to writing and directing after the dearth of meaty female parts, and her only recourse is to "keep finding a way to be making work."
- Hunt weighs in on recent London theatre flashpoints — Lesley Manville's disapproval of videos during a final ovation and Rosamund Pike returning to the stage over an audience member's texting — saying phones have "changed everything" and eroded presence.
Why it matters: The RSC staging is Hunt's first UK stage appearance since her 2021 Old Vic run in Eureka Day, and pairs her with Branagh in a Tamara Harvey-directed reading of one of Chekhov's most-performed plays. Hunt's remarks on ageism, phone-wielding audiences, and a "hard time to be a human being in my country" lift the piece above standard pre-opening publicity.
