HELEN HUNT TAKES BOBBY TO WORK WITH SHEEN

It has been at least six years since The Curse of The Jade Scorpion that Helen Hunt has made a movie. Taking time off after her daughter was born Helen was perfectly content playing the role of mother until she was asked to play the wife of Martin Sheen in Bobby. Helen says he was directly responsible for bringing her out of semi-retirement.

Helen’s character in Bobby was a loving tribute to Emilio Estevez’ own mother who missed dinner with Lyndon Johnson because she couldn’t find the right hat to wear while his father Martin Sheen went off to the White House to break bread with the president alone. Helen talks about the character.

“I hadn’t worked in a while and I was home with my baby and not in a big movie mood. I thought he’s like an angel this guy and I learned that his son is too. It was just too conspicuous that someone that sweet and talented would want me to come work with them. I just wanted to show up. I’m remembering now that Martin came over to my house and we worked on this and tried to decide what this marriage was and how long they’d been together and where each of them was in their lives.”

Leaving her daughter to make a movie about Bobby Kennedy was reason enough for Helen to go to work every day at the Ambassador Hotel.

“I play a woman who has contributed to the Kennedy campaign and is married to Martin Sheen and they’ve come to the Ambassador Hotel to be there for this moment. And along the way we learn that she is lost in a very particular way. She’s lost in what she’s wearing and how she looks and a lack of sense of herself. And her husband doesn’t know how to help her until he does.”

“I did think about that when I saw the movie that my daughter will hear what he said in a way that might be feelable to her because if she watches the movie she will have watched this group of human beings make their way to that fateful moment. So by the time Bobby Kennedy’s speech plays her heart will be open and she’ll really hear what he says.”