In an article devoted to William Hurt, who died on March 13 at the age of 71, RollingStone wrote that he was “an actor like you only meet once in a lifetime”. In fact, whether he appeared as a star or in support, William Hurt had the gift of marking the imagination. In his game, the actor did surprisingly little, as evidenced by his five best performances – an eminently subjective selection, it goes without saying.
Of the comedian’s subtle approach, Roger Ebert wrote acutely in a 1989 interview: “To almost all of his roles he imparts a sense of the ordinary; the feeling that it is simply a person who is in this place at this time. That almost bland exterior during the opening scenes is what triggers the emotional outbursts later on. »
A good example is found in The Accidental Tourist (Traveler in spite of himself, 1988), the third collaboration between William Hurt and his favorite director, Lawrence Kasdan. Hurt plays an author of travel guides struggling to come to terms with the loss of his only son, the departure of his wife (Kathleen Turner) and the attentions of a dog trainer (Geena Davis). With sensitivity, the actor creates a man who survived by repressing his emotions, but who will only reconnect with happiness by accepting to experience them.
In the interview with Ebert, the actor confided in this regard: “You cut the capacity for grief in your life, and you cut the joy at the same time. […] You don’t have one without the other. »
In this case, such seems to be the philosophy of The Big Chill (Friends first, 1983), by Lawrence Kasdan, who willingly goes from laughter to tears. We follow a group of friends, protesting twenty-somethings who have become middle-class thirty-somethings, gathered for the funeral of one of their own. Hurt is the most troubled of the bunch, but everyone gets a chance to shine.
Point of ease
For the account, the actor gave more importance to the whole than to his only contribution. At Daily Actorhe confided as follows: “What I want when I read a script is to have the feeling that I would like to play basically any character […] What I want is to experience the feeling that I would like to be part of this project. »
Apart from not measuring the importance of roles by their time spent on screen, especially in the second half of their career, when he became a popular supporting actor, Hurt was not looking for love. audience through kind characters. Indeed, and unlike many actors of his caliber, he was not reluctant to lend his features to unsympathetic, even pathetic men, as in Body Heat (body fevernineteen eighty one).
In his first collaboration with Kasdan, Hurt plays a deceitful lawyer who agrees to kill the husband of his mistress (Kathleen Turner, in her memorable debut). We are far from the romantic hero, archetype that William Hurt could have embodied if he had wished, with his tall stature, his fairness and his pleasant face. But no: no easy way for him.
Moreover, we can see in his character as a photogenic journalist but a bit stupid of Broadcast News (1987) a fine parody of this type of role. In this satire of the media imagined by James L. Brooks, he finds another great partner in the person of Holly Hunter, who plays a stressed producer.
Note that the actor was making a professional return there after a rehab for alcoholism, as he later opened up to the washington post “Accepting that made the difference between a happy life and an unhappy life. The most important day of my life was the day I asked for help. »
Knowing this, it is not surprising that this composition remains one of the tastiest of William Hurt, who managed to combine substance and lightness.
A consummate art
We are entitled to the same mixture, but this time with notes of black humor, in A History of Violence (A history of violence, 2005). In this film by David Cronenberg, he is striking during his passage, as late as it is brief, as Viggo Mortensen’s oldest gangster. All the consummate art of William Hurt is there, concentrated: the latent explosion of The Accidental Touristthe spineless hypocrisy of Body Heatthe fundamental imbecility of Broadcast News… Enjoyable.
Finally, it is impossible not to mention Kiss of the Spider-Woman (Spider Woman’s Kiss, 1985), a film by Héctor Babenco which earned William Hurt the Best Actor Award at Cannes and the Oscar for Best Actor. He is unforgettable as a film-loving homosexual prisoner who falls in love with his fellow prisoner, a macho revolutionary (Raúl Juliá).
For who would have counted, yes, that makes six and not five films. However, for “an actor like you only meet once in a lifetime”, the exception is in order.
With the exception of Kiss of the Spider-Womanthe films cited are offered on several platforms, including iTunes.