Helen Hunt will always be my 1990s sitcom queen. I adored Mad About You, Jamie and Paul Buchman, and that too-perfect NYC apartment. Helen won the leading actress Oscar for 1997?s As Good As It Gets, and she attempted to build upon the big win after her show wrapped. Helen kept working steadily, but she never landed another huge role. She tells HuffPo that part of the problem was waiting out Mad‘s last few years before trying to ride the Oscar. She also has a slightly different take on aging in Hollywood. Helen believes the real problem is that well-written roles for women are scarce, so it’s not just an age thing.

Helen took matters into her own hands after her Oscar. She’s currently promoting her new film, Ride, which she wrote, directed, and in which she stars. Her character is a mother learning to surf in order to rebuild a bond with a teenage son. The journo tries to steer the conversation into aging, probably because Helen is 52. Helen simply says that surfing keeps her feeling young. She’s surfed for 10 years and started after age 40! Some excerpts:

Hollywood downswings aren’t about age: “What are the great movies for younger women where they’re the protagonist [being] made now? You know what I mean? The whole thing — there’s no equal rights amendment. We’re f***ed. So starting with that premise, we push the giant rock up the hill. That’s my theory.”

The constant objectification of women: “I certainly drive around and I’m tired of the billboard where she’s barely in her underwear and they’re selling, you know, a watch or something. I’m over it, to be honest.”

Learning to surf after age 40: “I always wanted to. You live in L.A., drive by the beach, and say ‘I want to do that!’ And I thought ‘Well, it’s getting late — I better do it.’”

The career impact of an Oscar: “It changes the offers you get for like three months. So you’d better be on it, which I wasn’t. In the long run, it’s the work you make now that matters.

[From HuffPo]

Helen also talks about her recent role as a sexual surrogate in The Sessions. I remember watching the internet have a field day with Helen’s nudity in the film, which she says looked at sexuality “honestly and without a lot of winks and jokes and creepiness.”

I think Helen makes an interesting point. Actresses tend to lament their career downslides after age 40, but they don’t usually speak up until they are personally affected. The real problem is that most roles for women are superficially written, and looking at the bigger picture may help Hollywood solve the problem.

Photos courtesy of WENN