From the archives: William Hurt looks back on his film history

In 2006, William Hurt gave Entertainment Weekly a tour of his career for our Role Call series. We're sharing it again following the Oscar winner's death on Sunday, March 13, 2022. He was 71.

Should you happen to encounter William Hurt one day and it crosses your mind to mention that you enjoyed one of his memorably idiosyncratic performances, here's a little piece of advice: Keep it to yourself.

"I don't want to hear compliments," scoffs the Oscar-winning actor. "I'm not interested in you paying attention to me on the street." But what if we adore the moment in Randa Haines' Children of a Lesser God when Hurt and Marlee Matlin reunite at a school dance while the Pointer Sisters' "Jump (For My Love)" blares in the background? "You can thank the Pointer Sisters, thank Randa, thank the editor, thank Marlee and me, and thank the guy who put those lights there," he says. "That's the problem with film, that the principle of credit where it's deserved is not followed."

Whether he wants it or not, he's getting some credit now: Almost two decades after he earned three consecutive Best Actor nominations (a feat since matched only by Russell Crowe), Hurt provided one of this year's biggest nomination-day surprises by scoring his fourth career nomination for his simultaneously terrifying and goofy cameo in A History of Violence. "The great thing about this nomination is that I'm playing a Philadelphia Mafia guy," he says. "And the first one was for a gay window dresser [in Kiss of the Spider Woman]. I am neither! And I'm glad that that point is being made. Because I believe in that point. I am a human being who thinks about and witnesses many different things about us." Over a four-hour, five-course dinner at the Hotel Bel-Air, the twice-divorced, 55-year-old father of four reminisced about his own history on film.

ALTERED STATES (1980)

After years of stage work, Hurt landed his first movie role in this trippy sci-fi drama based on the novel by three-time Oscar winner Paddy Chayefsky (Network). The film gained a cult following and made Hurt a reluctant new star.

I didn't want to do films. I was a member of a repertory ensemble company; I was making 165 bucks a week. I could pay my rent, and I was happy. [But] Paddy was my hero. When I read the script, I couldn't stop weeping for a half an hour and I couldn't stand up for 45 minutes. The shoot was 156 consecutive shooting days. I didn't want to be famous. I know that sounds pretentious, but I really didn't want to be, because I knew I would have a hard time of it. I knew it would be very difficult for me to handle the pressure.

BODY HEAT (1981)

The first of four collaborations with writer-director Lawrence Kasdan paired Hurt with Kathleen Turner as lovers who plot a murder in sultry Florida. For many, the film's labyrinthine plot was overshadowed by its graphic sex scenes.

My publicist at the time said, "Don't do this, this is porno." I said, "No, this is the best morality play I've ever read." But people get stuck and call it a sexy movie rather than a morality play. I remember one night Larry and I were looking at Kathleen. It was the shot where she's walking away in that white dress. And I whispered to him, "She's like a longbow."

THE BIG CHILL 1983

Hurt was part of the Motown-fueled college-pal drama (also written and directed by Kasdan) that made megastars out of Kevin Kline and Glenn Close but not Kevin Costner, thanks to a flashback scene that was left on the cutting-room floor.

The best part about the script was that coda. But Larry lost final cut. It went back to the University of Michigan and you met them when they were younger. That's when you met Kevin Costner. It wasn't shot well enough, and that became the excuse for cutting it. We shot it first, and you had a bunch of actors who were just getting together. The coda made the film a classic. Instead of just being wonderful nostalgia about one generation, the coda would have said to all of the generations who would ever see the movie, we were like you.

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (1985)

Hurt's first Oscar nomination (and only win) came for his portrayal of gay prisoner Luis Molina, who befriends his straight cellmate, played by the late Raul Julia, with whom Hurt developed a deep friendship. Before filming started, Hurt had a strange proposition for director Hector Babenco:

We were almost at the end of our second week of rehearsal. I was very frustrated. Something wasn't happening. I said, "Raul, we're not getting there. So let's reverse [roles]." So we reversed for hours. He played Molina and I played Valentin. And right away I realized what I hadn't been giving him. I went racing back to the hotel and I said, "Hector! I am going to play Valentin." And he was like, "No! It's too late!" [On Oscar night] I had a couple glasses of wine, got dressed up like a penguin, and went as a character study. I just went to watch penguins salivating and lusting for gold dildos. I said to Sally Field when she put it in my hands, I said, "Sally, what the hell do I do with this?" She looks at me and says, "You live with it." When Raul was dying, I went to his house. We played chess. He won the first game, and then we played the second game and I won handily. And he was really pissed. So we started a third game, and he was too tired to finish. So we marked down all the positions, and I went off to England, and we would call each other on the phone and play the game over the phone. I still have what's left of the chessboard, and I will take it with me to my grave.

CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD (1986)

For her film debut, director Randa Haines adapted Mark Medoff's acclaimed play about a teacher for the deaf who falls for a troubled young graduate. Hurt (who earned another Best Actor nod) and costar Marlee Matlin (who won the Best Actress Oscar) embarked on an affair off-screen as well.

[Editor's note: In her 2009 autobiography I'll Scream Later, Matlin claimed Hurt physically abused her during their relationship. In response, Hurt issued the following statement: "My own recollection is that we both apologized and both did a great deal to heal our lives. Of course, I did and do apologize for any pain I caused. And I know we have both grown. I wish Marlee and her family nothing but good."]

There were four different films there. There was the one I was working on, the one Randa was working on, the one Marlee was working on, and the one the [deaf] kids were working on. Randa and I were very much at odds. It was Marlee's first time out. I've never seen a blade that sharp. Marlee was a babe in the woods as far as filmmaking went but with a natural maturity and intelligence that was just off the charts. And I did fall for that. But when the workday started I drew a line between the work and anything personal. The play was poetry, and the film was not. We let the writer down, and I'm still sorry about that.

BROADCAST NEWS (1987)

James L. Brooks' seminal love triangle skewering the TV news business caught a whippersnapper producer (Holly Hunter) between a rising anchor (Hurt) and a sweat-prone reporter (Albert Brooks). All four earned Oscar nods.

The most memorable thing was the first scene Holly and I shot. It was the hotel room scene where she throws herself at me and I refuse, which is a very delicate scene. It's an amazingly astute film. Years later, [Peter] Jennings and [Tom] Brokaw both trapped me on the Concorde: "What was that movie about, was that meant to be funny?" I was like, "I was just joking, guys!"

THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST (1988)

Kasdan's adaptation of Anne Tyler's sensitive novel — about a travel writer who meets a quirky dog trainer — landed Geena Davis a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Geena Davis is a genius. She's completely underrated. I was working 90-hour weeks. We were working on this minimalism thing, so it was very quiet, very deft. She was trying to deal with her nerves by being jocular on the set with the crew, and I was getting a little perturbed. So we went to Larry's trailer, and I said, "Geena, I have too much of a load for the set to be jokey." She turned to me and said, "Is that all?" The next day was when we shot the scene when he goes to her and says, "I can't," and she just opens the door and leads him in. Larry and I looked at each other and went, "That's it, she's home." She never looked back.

THE DOCTOR (1991)

Hurt reunited with Haines and costarred with Christine Lahti for a tear-jerking drama about a hotshot surgeon who experiences life as a patient after being diagnosed with throat cancer.

Randa and I patched everything up, and we had a wonderful time on The Doctor, except for the ending. They made me shoot four endings. I don't remember what they were, but I remember I wanted my lawyer there. We shot them all at the same time because they knew they'd never get me back.

LOST IN SPACE (1998)

Hurt's first (and last) foray into action-hero territory was in this film adaptation of the cult 1960s TV series. Its lackluster $69 million gross led to plenty of "Danger, Will Robinson" jokes.

The problem was that the special effects began to increase as the production went along, whereas the screenplay was more about family. I was getting a massage once in Philadelphia from this wonderful Irish woman, tough as nails and a great political parlayer. We started agreeing on politics and on and on, and I said, "And then there's compromise." And she said, "You mean like Lost in Space?" Didn't even bat an eyelash. She said, "I knew they must have had a gun to your head."

THE VILLAGE (2004)

M. Night Shyamalan's gothic horror tale, in which Hurt costarred with Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard, earned $114 million, marking Hurt's highest-grossing film to date.

[It] was a wonderful experience. But that was because Night gave us a week of rehearsals in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, alone. We were in tents in a girls' camp and he even made the younger actors give up their cell phones. We also lived in a compound, like a bed-and-breakfast with little bungalows. So we would eat dinner together. And I would say, "Anybody wanna rehearse?"

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005)

With just 10 minutes of screen time opposite Viggo Mortensen, Hurt turns gangster Richie Cusack into a villain for the ages. Director David Cronenberg gave Hurt permission to swing for the fences.

I see him as this utterly pathetic, hilarious, poignant, dangerous, lethal being. I arrived 10 days early. I started working with a dialect coach and Viggo had time for me every night. We talked about the history of the characters, where they were coming from, sibling rivalry. We didn't even do lines. [On set] I asked David Cronenberg, "Do you want me to turn on the afterburners? You want me to cook?" He said, "Sure, go ahead!" I don't want this nomination to be the end of the bookshelf. 'Cause I think I've got a lot more in me.

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