At 50, Holly Hunter had the athletic confidence of a movie star enjoying her prime recently as she strode across the patio of a Los Feliz cafe in a sundress and heeled pumps so high they appeared almost vertical.
She raised a small arm with an impressive biceps to shake hands. While other patrons stood in line to order, the waiters, notified in advance of her arrival, brought a menu to her table.
Like many Hollywood stars whose biggest parts once seemed behind them, Hunter might have been doomed to the standard mom or spurned wife roles. But riding the crest of actresses leading television series, she has revitalized her career on the small screen as Grace -- a hard-drinking, promiscuous Southern detective monitored by a crusty angel named Earl.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, July 17, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 61 words Type of Material: Correction
Holly Hunter: An article in Sunday's Calendar section about actress Holly Hunter said that she and actor Gordon MacDonald will appear in a 2009 film called "Frost Flowers." The film's producers say that Hunter had accepted a role but her publicist said she is not attached to the project. The producers add that they have had no formal discussions with MacDonald.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, July 20, 2008 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part E Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 58 words Type of Material: Correction
Holly Hunter: An article last Sunday about the actress said that she and actor Gordon MacDonald will appear in a 2009 film called "Frost Flowers." The film's producers say that Hunter had accepted a role, but her publicist said she is not attached to the project. The producers add that they have had no formal discussions with MacDonald.
Unlike, say, Kyra Sedgwick in "The Closer" or Glenn Close in "Damages," Hunter's "Saving Grace" role has veered into new territory as that rarely seen character: an explicitly sexual 40-year-old woman. In a titillating mix of pleasure and religion, Grace, a driven detective and kindly aunt, is often shown having sex, sometimes with married men, and then debating her behavior with Earl.
Although some critics complained that her rebel-hero character was "tiresome," others also allowed that TNT pushed boundaries with her coarse language and semi-nude sexuality.
"Grace is a study of human nature first and foremost," Hunter said. "The allure of Grace is her complexity. She can often entice conflicts, and she surrenders to her desires, what she feels could be the most fun, intoxicating, seductive, tantalizing, what could be the most cool. So many people slog through the moments to, say, get to Friday. Grace lives fully."
The Oscar-winning actress was nominated for a Golden Globe for "Saving Grace" and this year received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Now shooting its second season, "Saving Grace" will launch Monday on TNT.
Hunter said she leaped at the chance to play Grace, because "I wanted to have that conversation with myself, with other characters and with an audience. Movies aren't made about a woman's whole life."
Working in television is, in a way, returning to her roots. In the 1980s, Hunter appeared in several TV movies and more recently in "When Billie Beat Bobby" (2001), a TV movie about Billie Jean King; and in "American Experience: Abraham and Mary Lincoln -- A House Divided" (2001) as the voice of Mary Lincoln.
