Anne Heche

For her work on Another World, Heche received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series in 1991. In November 1991 Heche made her primetime television debut in an episode of Murphy Brown. She made her TV-movie debut the following year with a brief appearance in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of O Pioneers! (1992). In 1993 Heche made her feature-film debut in Disney's The Adventures of Huck Finn with Elijah Wood. Over the next two years, she had small supporting roles in made-for-TV movies such as Girls in Prison (1994) and Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995). She also appeared in the straight-to-video erotic thriller Wild Side (1995) as Joan Chen's lesbian lover.

In 1996 Heche landed her first substantial role as a college student contemplating an abortion in a segment of the made-for-HBO anthology film If These Walls Could Talk, co-starring Cher and Demi Moore. Also in the year, she appeared opposite Catherine Keener portraying childhood best friends in the independent film Walking and Talking. The limited-release film garnered favorable reviews from critics and is number 47 on Entertainment Weekly's "Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time" list.[11] Heche gained positive notice from film critic Alison Macor of Austin Chronicle, who wrote in her review that she "is destined for larger film roles".[12] She played the wife of Johnny Depp's titular FBI undercover agent in the 1997 crime drama Donnie Brasco. The film made $124.9 million worldwide,[13] and critic Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "[Heche] does well with what could have been the thankless role."[14]

By the late 1990s Heche continued to find recognition and commercial success as she took on supporting roles in three other 1997 high-profile film releases—Volcano, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Wag the Dog. The disaster film Volcano, about the formation of a volcano in Los Angeles, had her star with Tommy Lee Jones and Gaby Hoffmann, playing a seismologist. While critical response towards the film was mixed, it grossed US$122 million at the international box office. She portrayed the minor role of a backwoods loner in the slasher thriller sleeper hit I Know What You Did Last Summer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze, Jr.. Despite her limited screen time in the film, Heche was considered a "standout" by some critics,[15] such as Variety.[16] She obtained the part of a presidential advisor opposite Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman in the political satire Wag the Dog, a role that was originally written for a man.[7] Budgeted at US$15 million, the film made US$64 million.[17]

Heche's first starring role came in the 1998 romantic adventure Six Days, Seven Nights, where she appeared opposite Harrison Ford, portraying a New York City journalist ending up with a pilot (Ford) in a deserted island following a crash landing. She had been cast in the film one day before her same-sex relationship with Ellen DeGeneres went public.[18] Although Heche was cast in a second starring role shortly thereafter as Vince Vaughn's love interest in the drama Return to Paradise (1998), she felt that her relationship with DeGeneres destroyed her prospects as a leading woman.[19] According to Heche, "People said, 'You're not getting a job because you're gay".[20] She commented: "How could that destroy my career? I still can't wrap my head around it."[19] Six Days, Seven Nights received mixed reviews, but grossed US$74.3 million in North America and US$164.8 million worldwide.[21] On her appearance in the dramatic thriller Return to Paradise, a writer for The New York Times remarked, "as Ms. Heche's formidable Beth Eastern does her best to manipulate the other characters on [co-star Joaquin Phoenix's character] behalf, Return to Paradise takes on the abstract weightiness of an ethical debate rather than the visceral urgency of a thriller".[22]

Heche starred in Gus Van Sant's Psycho (1998), a remake of the 1960 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In the updated version, she took on the role originally played by Janet Leigh, Marion Crane, an embezzler who arrives at an old motel run by serial killer Norman Bates (played by Vince Vaughn in their second collaboration). Psycho earned negative reviews, and despite a US$60 million budget, it made a lukewarm US$37.1 million worldwide.[23] In an otherwise negative review of the film, Janet Maslin of The New York Times felt that Heche was "refreshingly cast in Marion's role", while noting that her portrayal was "as almost as demure as Ms. Leigh's, yet she's also more headstrong and flirty".[24] Her 1998 films have remained the only theatrically released films in which she has had a leading role. She has continued to act in film and on television, but quickly fell under the Hollywood radar.[25]

Most of her roles in the early 2000s were in independent films and television; she played the role of Dr. Sterling in the film adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel's autobiography about depression, Prozac Nation, with Christina Ricci and Jessica Lange. Premiered at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, the film received a DVD release in 2005. She appeared as a hospital administrator in the thriller John Q, about a father and husband (Denzel Washington) whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart. The production made US$102.2 million at the worldwide box office,[26] despite negative reviews by critics.[27] In 2001, she also obtained a recurring role in the fourth season of the television series Ally McBeal.

In 2002 Heche made her Broadway debut in a production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Proof, acting as a young woman who has inherited her father's mathematical genius and mental illness. The New York Times found Heche to be "consequential" in her portrayal, and comparing her to Mary-Louise Parker and Jennifer Jason Leigh, who had previously played her character in other productions of the play, stated: "[...] Ms. Heche, whose stage experience is limited and who is making her New York stage debut at 33, plays the part with a more appeasing ear and more conventional timing, her take on the character is equally viable. Her Catherine is a case of arrested development, impatient, aggressively indignant, impulsive".[28] In 2004, Heche received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the Lifetime movie Gracie's Choice, as well as a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance in the CBS television film The Dead Will Tell. In the same year, she acted opposite Alec Baldwin in Broadway's Twentieth Century, about a successful and egomaniacal Broadway director (Baldwin), who has transformed a chorus girl (Heche) into a leading lady. For her performance, she was nominated for the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Heche in 2007

Also in 2004, appeared alongside Nicole Kidman and Cameron Bright in the well-received independent drama Birth. She took on the recurring role on the WB drama Everwood during its 2004–05 season, and then a recurring role on Nip/Tuck in 2005 as an ex-mob wife and Witness Protection Program subject who requires plastic surgery. Heche continued her television work with her portrayal of a widow who does not celebrate Christmas in made-for-CBS Silver Bells (2005), and a con woman who schemes a man she meets on a dating website in the made-for-Lifetime Fatal Desire (2006).

Heche appeared in the small-scale dramedy Sexual Life (2005), chronicling the modern romantic life and co-starring Azura Skye and Elizabeth Banks. The film was screened in the film festival circuit and received a television premiere.[29] In 2006 Heche began work on her own series, Men in Trees. In the show, she starred as a New York author, who after finding out her fiancé is cheating on her, moves to a small town in Alaska, which happens to be abundant with single men and few women. Men in Trees was cancelled in May 2008, after a season shortened by the writer's strike. During the airing of the show, Heche starred in the horror-comedy Suffering Man's Charity (2007), the romantic comedy What Love Is (2007), and the science-fiction thriller Toxic Skies (2008), all of which went little-seen by audiences.[30]

Heche appeared as the girlfriend of a narcissistic gigolo in the sex comedy Spread (2009), co-starring Ashton Kutcher. The film received a limited release in North American theaters while it made US$12 million at the worldwide box office.[31] Matthew Turney of View London felt that "[t]here's also terrific support" from Heche in what he described as an "enjoyable, sharply written and beautifully shot LA drama".[32] Also in 2009, she was cast in the HBO dramedy series Hung, as the ex-wife of a financially struggling high school basketball/baseball coach (portrayed by Thomas Jane). The series received favorable reviews and aired until 2011.[33]

A cameo appearance as the CEO of an important company in the well-received comedy The Other Guys (2010), starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, was followed by a much larger role in the independent comedy Cedar Rapids (2011), where she portrayed a seductive insurance agent with whom a naive and idealistic man (played by Ed Helms) becomes smitten. The Sundance-premiered production garnered critical praise and was an arthouse success.[34][35] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter remarked in its review for the film, "while Heche shines brightest in more brittle mode, as in HBO's Hung, she strikes a sweet balance between Joan's mischievous and maternal sides".[36]

In the drama Rampart (2011), she starred with Woody Harrelson and Cynthia Nixon, as one of the two former wives of a corrupt police officer (Harrelson), who also happen to be sisters. The film had a selected theatrical run following its premiere at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival, and garnered an overall positive response;[37][38] The San Francisco Chronicle, pointing out Heche and her other female co-stars, remarked that they "allow Harrelson to shine —he has always had a way of preening for women— and he brings out the best in them".[39] Heche had the leading role in the comedy That's What She Said (2012), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and also played the girlfriend of a former pro golfer (Colin Firth) in the critically acclaimed dramedy Arthur Newman (also 2012).

Heche starred with James Tupper, Jennifer Stone, and Rebekah Brandes in the supernatural horror film Nothing Left to Fear (2013), about a family's life in a new town being interrupted by an unstable man of the cloth. The film received a release for VOD and selected theaters,[40] and it currently holds a rating of only 12 on review-aggregator website Metacritic, indicating it was "overwhelming dislike" by critics.[41] Los Angeles Times remarked that both Heche and Tupper "should write apology notes to their fans".[40] Also in 2013, Heche headlined the short-lived NBC sitcom Save Me, in which she starred as a Midwestern housewife who believes that she is channelling God.[42] She played the waitress friend of a recovering gambling addict (Jason Statham) in the action thriller Wild Card (2014).[43] Distributed for a VOD and limited release in certain parts of North America only, the film only grossed US$6.7 million internationally on a $30 million budget.[44] She had a recurring guest-role on The Michael J. Fox Show before its cancellation. In 2013, she signed a first look deal with Universal Television.[45]

USA Network's action adventure drama series, Dig, had Heche portray the head of the FBI office in Jerusalem whose agents uncover a 2,000-year-old conspiracy while investigating an archaeologist's murder. The six-episode series premiered late 2014.[46] In 2015, Heche guest-starred in the ABC thriller series Quantico playing the role of criminal profiler, Dr. Susan Langdon.[47] On September 27, 2016, the post-apocalyptic action drama Aftermath –starring Heche– debuted on Canada's Space Network and on United States' Syfy. Heche played Karen Copeland, an Air Force pilot from Washington, who must navigate Armageddon, along with her university-professor husband Josh (played by James Tupper, also a co-producer on the series) and their three nearly adult children. Neither Dig nor Aftermath was renewed for a second season.

Heche filmed the supporting part of the lead singer for a Broadway musical in Opening Night (2016), with Topher Grace. The musical comedy was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival.[48][49] In another independent film, the comedy Catfight (2016), Heche starred opposite Sandra Oh, portraying two bitter rivals who pursue a grudge match that spans a lifetime. Like Heche's previous film projects, the film premiered in the film-festival circuit and received a VOD and limited release,[50] to largely favorable reviews from critics.[51] Los Angeles Times wrote: "Oh and Heche are great here, giving performances entirely lacking in vanity and self-consciousness. They aren’t afraid to get ugly, both in their treatment of everyone around them as well as in their post-brawl bruises, which makes them that much funnier".[52]

In 2017, Heche played a supporting role in My Friend Dahmer as the teenaged Jeffrey Dahmer’s (Ross Lynch) mentally ill mother, Joyce.[53] She received positive reviews for her performance, with The Hollywood Reporter calling her "nerve-jangling perfection"[54] and Empire calling her "entertainingly off-kilter".[55]

On September 25, 2017, Heche debuted as (fictional) Deputy Director Patricia Campbell of the (real-life) Defense Intelligence Agency, or the "DIA," in the new military/espionage thriller The Brave. Heche is the series lead for this 2017–18 season NBC series. Campbell oversees an elite team of cross-military-service specialists who must undertake especially dangerous missions, led by male lead Mike Vogel.

In 2018, she joined the television series Chicago P.D. in a supporting role.[56]

On September 2, 2020, Heche was announced as one of the celebrities competing on the 29th season of Dancing with the Stars.[57]

Heche has four siblings, three of whom are deceased.

• Susan (May 5, 1957 – January 1, 2006) died of brain cancer.[73] Heche was estranged from her.[7]
• Cynthia (August 26, 1961 – October 26, 1961) died in infancy of a heart defect.[8]
• Nathan (April 21, 1965 – June 4, 1983) died in a car crash shortly before his high school graduation. Heche has claimed his death was a suicide (see below;[2][10][74]).
• Abigail (surviving; see below)

Heche and her mother, Nancy, have been estranged since Heche confronted her about sexual abuse she claims to have suffered at the hands of her father.[75] In her 2001 memoir, Call Me Crazy, Heche wrote that when she contracted genital herpes as an infant, her mother insisted that it was a diaper rash and refused to take her to the doctor.[76] Nancy was outraged by her daughter's allegations, responding, "I am trying to find a place for myself in this writing, a place where I as Anne's mother do not feel violated or scandalized." She added, "I find no place among the lies and blasphemies in the pages of this book."[77]

Heche's sister, Abigail, a jewelry designer,[78] added, "It is my opinion that my sister Anne truly believes, at this moment, what she has asserted about our father's past behavior; however, at the same time, I would like to point out that Anne, in the past, has expressed doubts herself about the accuracy of such memories." She said, "Based on my experience and her own expressed doubts, I believe that her memories regarding our father are untrue. And I can state emphatically, regardless of Anne's beliefs, that the assertion that our mother knew about such behavior is absolutely false."[77]

Nancy has denied Heche's allegation that her brother Nathan committed suicide: "I have talked to his youth pastor, and he said that Nathan was committed to the Lord, he loved Jesus, and I do not believe that that was suicide, but the death of his father from homosexuality three months earlier could certainly have stirred up a lot of confusion for him."[74]

Since her husband's death from AIDS, Nancy has been a Christian therapist and motivational speaker, who lectures on behalf of James Dobson's Focus on the Family about "overcoming homosexuality".[19] In 2009, Anne Heche told The New York Times:

My mother's had a very tragic life. Three of her five children are dead, and her husband is dead. That she is attempting to change gay people into straight people is, in my opinion, a way to keep the pain of the truth out. People wonder why I am so forthcoming with the truths that have happened in my life, and it's because the lies that I have been surrounded with and the denial that I was raised in, for better or worse, bore a child of truth and love. My mother preaches to this day the opposite of that core of my life. It is no mistake that she still stands up against love. And one wonders why I'm not rushing to have her meet my children.[19]

In 2011, Heche told The Daily Telegraph that she doubts she will be able to ever repair her relationship with her mother.[8]

On August 19, 2000, Heche drove from Los Angeles to Cantua Creek outside Fresno, California, and parked her Toyota SUV along a dusty roadside.[79] Wearing only a bra and shorts, Heche walked 1 ¹⁄₂ miles (2.4 km) through the desert and knocked on the door of a stranger's ranch house.[79] When the home's occupant, Araceli Campiz, opened the door, she immediately recognized Heche from the film Six Days, Seven Nights. Campiz recalled: "I was thinking, 'Oh my God, we're in the middle of nowhere', and she walks in."[79] Campiz said that Heche gulped down glass upon glass of water, and then "took off her Nikes and said she needed to take a shower", at which point Campiz obliged, offering Heche a towel.[79] As far as Campiz could tell, Heche was not drunk, drugged, or ill; however, Heche later admitted that she had taken ecstasy.[5] After Heche had a shower, she got settled in the living room, requested a pair of slippers, and suggested that Campiz do the same.[79] "She wanted to watch a movie, but the VCR was broken," according to Campiz.[79] Bemused at first, Campiz grew uneasy when Heche showed no sign of leaving—calling neither friends nor a garage—after half an hour had passed. Campiz has stated: "I didn't know what to do. So I called the sheriff's department."[79] According to a police report that was aired on KSEE-TV, when deputies arrived, Heche told them that she was "God, and was going to take everyone back to heaven in a spaceship". The deputies summoned an ambulance, which ferried Heche the 50 miles (80 km) to Fresno's University Medical Center, where she was admitted to the psychiatric unit, from which she was released after a few hours.[79]

Heche stated she was "insane" for the first 31 years of her life, and that this was triggered by being sexually abused by her father during her infancy and childhood.[80][81] In a series of interviews with Barbara Walters, Matt Lauer, and Larry King to promote Call Me Crazy in 2001, Heche stated on national television that she created a fantasy world called the "Fourth Dimension" to make herself feel safe, and had an alter ego who was the daughter of God and half-sister of Jesus Christ named "Celestia", who had contacts with extraterrestrial life forms.[77][82] Heche said she recovered from her mental health concerns following the incident in Cantua Creek and has put her alter ego behind her.[5]