Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 2, 1993 TAG: 9301020148
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JERRY BUCK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BUSY AS A BEE
Helen Hunt relished her role as a rookie policewoman in the CBS movie "In the Company of Darkness" because her character was naive enough to be manipulated by the killer she was investigating."She thought if she worked hard enough, if she was good enough, she could neutralize the evil in this other person," Hunt said of the movie that airs Tuesday (at 9 p.m. on WDBC-Channel 7). "She is pulled into this other world and a bizarre friendship with this man."
Hunt stars as Gina Pulasky, who goes undercover to trap a suspected serial killer, played by Steven Weber of NBC's "Wings." But he is so charmingly deceptive, she drops her guard.
The actress is regularly seen as the glamorous young executive newly wed to Paul Reiser in the Wednesday night NBC comedy "Mad About You." In one of her last television movies, she played a schoolteacher who persuaded several students to kill her husband in "Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story."
In her latest movie, Hunt's character obtains a job in a fast food place, working beside the suspect, who immediately latches on to her. She learns that, like herself, he comes from a dysfunctional family. Her mother was an alcoholic, forcing her to become a surrogate mother.
"If he'd been simply the stereotypical evil person, she would have said, `Oh, he's evil.' But he played it almost like a child who was wired wrong," Hunt said. "That allowed her to be off guard and be sucked in by him." Weber combed his hair forward to achieve an appearance like a demented elf.
"Sometimes, he'd run his hands through his hair and pull it back, and I'd say, `Oh, you are a handsome guy,' " Hunt said. "I'd be there in my greasy brown hair and have a bra strap showing."
To take a break during the filming in Chicago, the two appeared together in something altogether different.
"Steven and I went one night to Second City," she said. "They put us on the stage and we improvised. We went back many times after that. They were so incredibly generous in letting us work with them.
"It was a wonderful way for us to blow out at the end of the day. We could get rid of all that evil and darkness. In so many TV movies, I'm in every scene. It's exhausting - mentally exhausting. It was good to get back to improvising. I'd spent 10 years studying improvisation and had rarely had an opportunity to practice it."
Hunt literally grew up studying acting and doing childhood roles. Her father is Gordon Hunt, an acting teacher and theatrical director. Her uncle, Peter Hunt, won a Tony for directing "1776" on Broadway and has directed television productions. She appeared in four series as a child.
"I was never a big success as a child actor, so it wasn't that hard for me to make the transition to adult roles," she said. "Sometimes, I didn't get a role because they thought I seemed too old. It actually got easier for me as I got older. And sometimes I'd take myself off the market and study."
Hunt has starred in more than 16 television movies, had recurring roles on "St. Elsewhere" and "China Beach" and starred in the short-lived series "My Life and Times."
This past year, she played Billy Crystal's agent in the feature film "Mr. Saturday Night" and co-starred with Eric Stoltz and Wesley Snipes in "The Waterdance."
Hunt said she had not been planning to do another series when she became involved in "Mad About You." She met Reiser because she had been sharing a home with Elizabeth Berridge ("Amadeus," NBC's "The Powers That Be"), who was a friend of Reiser's wife.
"Paul called me and said he had a script he'd like to send me," she said. "I read it and met with him and said what I would want her to be in the show. Luckily, that's what Paul and producer Danny Jacobs wanted. I liked the idea that the humor would come from putting a magnifying glass on a marriage, and not because of a lot of wacky characters running around.
"As we go on, the stories don't get bigger and bigger, but smaller and smaller as we look at this couple. I don't write for the show, but they include me in the writing sessions and I make a few contributions about my character."