What the Hell Happened to Heather Graham?
Heather Graham has been around a lot longer than most people realize. She had an early role in a Haim/Feldman “Coreys classic”, got caught up in the craziness of James Woods and somehow clawed her way to being Hollywood’s “it” girl for a few short years in the mid 90′s. And then, she vanished into virtual obscurity. What the hell happened?
I pride myself on having an eye for talent. So when I saw Swingers in 1996, I felt like I had discovered “that funny guy” (Vince Vaughn) and “the blonde at the club” (Heather Graham). I watched their careers with interest as their stars rose. I rooted for them both to succeed and felt validated when they both became big stars.
I did not anticipate that “the big guy” (Jon Favreau) would go on to direct Iron Man. But I was happy for him too.
Over the years, you can imagine my embarrassment as I came to realize that Graham had been around for years before Swingers. Not only that, but I had actually seen a lot of her work without taking much notice.
Heather Graham’s first role was an uncredited cameo in the Mel Gibson-Diane Keaton prison romance, Mrs. Soffel in 1984. She was 14 years old. That fresh face I “discovered” in 1996 had been working for 12 years by then. Ooops.
In fairness, you can’t blame a 14-year-old boy for missing a Diane Keaton movie. Especially Mrs. Soffel.
Graham’s first credited roles weren’t until 1987 when she appeared in two episodes of Growing Pains and a TV movie called Student Exchange.
Ohhh, that Mike Seaver. I wonder what he’s up to now…
Man, I did not see that coming. Anyway…
In 1988, Graham got her first significant role opposite the Coreys (Feldman and Haim, Martin and Lewis of the 1980′s) in License to Drive.
Graham was Corey Haim’s dream girl named (get this) Mercedes Lane. Because, you know, cars.
Being a 17-year-old dude, the Coreys were no more appealing to me than Diane Keaton. So I missed this one too. But the reviews were surprisingly positive for a movie starring Corey and Corey. And it was a hit at the box office.
Later that year, Graham had a small but important role in the Ivan Reitman comedy, Twins.
When I read that Heather Graham was in Twins, I assumed she was one of the girls the twins met up with in their travels. But no, it turns out Graham played Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito’s mother in flashback.
Heather Graham as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito’s mom. Only in the movies.
Graham got a big break playing a drug addict in Gus Van Sant’s breakthrough movie, Drugstore Cowboy opposite Matt Dillon. It was a supporting role, but the reviews were great. Drugstore Cowboy was a small movie, but it was seen by casting agents.
In 1990, she had a small role in Lawrence Kasdan’s black comedy, I Love You to Death.
Like a lot of Kasdan films, I Love You to Death had a star-studded cast. Even the bit parts were filled with the likes of Keanu Reeves and William Hurt. I recently re-watched I Love You to Death specifically to spot Graham. Blink and you will miss her.
In 1991, Graham appeared opposite John Travolta and Jamie Walters in the rock-and-roll coming-of-age film, Shout.
At the time, Travolta was squandering his Look Who’s Talking career bump. And Walters was on his way to becoming the “How Do You Talk to an Angel Guy”.
For what it’s worth, I hear it’s like trying to catch a falling star.
Anyway, Shout was a bomb. Travolta was nominated for a Golden Raspberry. And Heather Graham moved on to greener (and weirder) pastures.
In 1990, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks was a cultural phenomenon on TV. It launched the careers of actresses like Sherilyn Fenn, Mädchen Amick and Lara Flynn Boyle.
The first season was critically acclaimed and a ratings winner. But in the second season, things started to fall apart rather quickly. I was a die-hard Peaks Freak, so please bear with me while I reminisce.
As the ratings started to decline, ABC got nervous. They insisted that Lynch reveal the identity of Laura Palmer’s killer. Lynch insisted that doing so would kill the show. But he relented to studio pressure.
Unfortunately, Lynch was right. With the killer revealed, Twin Peaks lost its reason to exist. The writers scrambled to find new stories to tell. But nothing they came up with worked. Instead of being strangely compelling, the second season of Twin Peaks was often just dumb.
In the midst of all this, there was a struggle between the writers and the show’s star, Kyle MacLachlan. The writers kept trying to link MacLachlan’s popular character, Agent Cooper, with the show’s most popular female character played by Sherilyn Fenn. They figured a romance between the show’s most popular characters would ignite the ratings.
But MacLachlan objected on the basis that Agent Cooper was an upstanding FBI agent and Fenn’s character was supposed to be a high school student. The issue got so heated that MacLachlan threatened to walk if the writers didn’t cut it out.
So instead, Fenn’s character got sidelined with an embarrassing subplot in which her dad begins reenacting the Civil War. Did I mention the writers had run out of ideas?
With Fenn’s character out of the way, they introduced a new character played by Graham. Annie Blackburn was a character created for the sole purpose of being Agent Cooper’s love interest/damsel in distress. She had all the depth you would expect from such a character.
A year ago, such a role would have made Graham a huge star. But by this point, cancellation was right around the corner. ABC was bouncing Twin Peaks all over the schedule. Fans had trouble finding the final episodes on which Graham’s character appeared.
We aren’t quite done with Twin Peaks just yet. In 1992, after the show was cancelled, David Lynch directed a movie called Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
Some of the TV cast refused to come back. They were upset about the way the show had ended and thought they could do better on their own. That worked out reasonably well for Lara Flynn Boyle. But not so well for Sherilyn Fenn.
Kyle MacLachlan originally opted out of the movie for fear of type casting. Reluctantly, he agreed to a reduced role. The show had ended on a cliffhanger with Graham’s character’s life in the balance. But without full participation from MacLachlan, that story would have to wait.
Instead, Fire Walk With Me was a prequel to the show. MacLachlan had an extended cameo. And Graham appeared for a moment teasing what might come should a sequel get made.
Unfortunately for Twin Peaks fans, there was a huge backlash against the show after its cancellation. Fire Walk With Me was booed at Cannes and bombed at the box office. The sequel in which Graham would likely have had a more significant role was never made.
In 1992, Graham also appeared opposite James Woods in the boxing movie, Diggstown.
Diggstown was a pretty forgettable movie. It got mixed reviews and did so-so box office. But it is significant to Graham because, like Sean Young before her, she began a relationship with her co-star. Graham was 22 and Woods was 44 at the time.
Woods, charmer that he is, summarized their relationship thusly to Movieline magazine in 2000:
Q: Your name has been linked with more than a few women in Hollywood. What was it like for you and Heather Graham, with whom you once said you were “wildly in love”?
A: Heather and I were together literally every day for almost a year. Now she has some sort of revisionist view of it–I read in the press she said something like, “I don’t know what I was doing. I must have been looking for a father figure.” Hey, all I remember is a wonderful time with a beautiful young woman who I thought would grow into a very successful actress, as she has. I always felt I was nice to her and it was a great experience. When we run into each other, it’s always cordial.
Q: It lasted as long as it was supposed to, it sounds like.
A: Actresses are very conflicted about a lot of things, like being mothers, for instance. They keep thinking, is my body going to change? Am I going to lose my beauty? In Hollywood, the appeal lies in being a young hottie– that’s where the employment is. I had a conversation with Heather when she was, like, 21, and I asked, “Do you ever think about getting married?” And she’s like, “Yeah, when I’m about 35. I’ll meet somebody and have a kid when I’m about 40.” Susan Sarandon ruined the world when she had a kid when she was, like, fucking 96 years old. Now, every actress wants to wait to have a kid at 90.I said to Heather, “How do you know you’ll get the same attention from men when you’re that age?” She was like, “Oh, you just like me for my blonde hair, my blue eyes and my big tits?” There was too long a pause before I answered, “Well…” and she just stormed out. That was the beginning of the end.
James Woods, ladies and gentlemen. Now would be a good time to lock up your daughters.
In the early 90′s, Graham was still paying her dues with small roles in three movies. She played “Cowgirl Heather” for her Drugstore Cowboy director, Gus Van Sant, in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. She also appeared in Six Degrees of Separation with Will Smith and Donald Sutherland.
Cut to 1996. Graham had a small but eye-catching role opposite Jon Favreau in the comedy, Swingers. She doesn’t do much more than awkwardly flirt with Favreau and cut up the dance floor. But it was extremely memorable.
The scene occurs towards the end of the movie as Favreau’s character, Mike, finally gains some confidence. Mikey’s all grown up!
Swingers was a hysterical indie comedy. It got great reviews and was a cult hit at the box office.
It was so money! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Vegas, baby!
If you have no idea what I am talking about, go check out Swingers and thank me later.
In 1997, Graham had small roles in two more high-profile movies. First, she played Rollergirl in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ode to 70′s porn, Boogie Nights.
Boogie Nights was extremely well-reviewed and a hit at the box office.
Later that year, Graham had a celebrity cameo in the horror-movie-within-a-horror-movie in Scream 2. The Scream sequels gradually chipped away at the reputation of the original. But in 1997, doing a cameo in Scream was still cool.
Not so in 2011 for Scream 4. Remember that.
In 1998, Graham had her first shot at real stardom with a decent-sized role in a mainstream movie. Unfortunately, that movie was the idiotic big screen adaptation of the 60′s TV show, Lost in Space.
Lost in Space wastes a great cast that includes Graham, William Hurt, Mimi Rogers and Gary Oldman. Oh, and also Matt LeBlanc and a pre-Maxim Lacey Chabert. I actually got a copy of Lost in Space for free when I bought my first DVD player and I still felt cheated out of two hours of my life I couldn’t get back.
The reviews for Lost in Space were deservedly negative. But in spite of the reviews, Lost in Space was actually a modest hit at the box office. In fact, it finally unseated long-standing box office champ, Titanic, after an amazing 15-week run.
As successful as Lost in Space was, it still fell short of the studio’s expectations. The cast was signed on for sequels that would never be made.
At roughly the same time as Lost in Space was stinking up the multiplexes (I am waiting for the first comment telling me I am being too hard on the inoffensive sci-fi flick), Graham was also appearing in the little-seen James Toback film, Two Girls and a Guy, opposite Robert Downey Jr.
Two Girls and a Guy is the kind of movie actresses are supposed to do in between main stream movies to show their range. But in the pre-Iron Man days, Downey wasn’t much of a draw. Most people never heard of the film in which he two-times Graham with Natasha Gregson Wagner.
(Don’t feel bad. I had to Google Natasha Gregson Wagner too.)
In 1999, Graham finally had her big year. Although, in retrospect, it wasn’t as big of a year as I remembered.
First, she appeared in the Austin Powers sequel, The Spy Who Shagged Me. The first Austin Powers film was a modest hit that attracted a larger following on video. The sequel brought the franchise to the masses. It wasn’t nearly as fresh or funny as the original. But it was a huge hit that saturated pop culture for years.
But as big as The Spy Who Shagged Me was, there was no mistaking the fact that it was Mike Myers movie. He played multiple roles and kept all the good lines for himself. Graham did little more than wear short skirts.
Even Mini-Me upstaged her.
Later that summer, Graham appeared opposite comedy legends Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy in the under-rated Hollywood satire, Bowfinger.
Graham summarized her role in Bowfinger thusly:
“It’s about these losers in Hollywood who want to make a movie, and I’m this naive, innocent girl who wants to be an actress. I’m willing to stop at nothing.”
Graham was very believable in the role. I will comment no further.
Bowfinger got very good reviews. It did well at the box office, but was not a runaway hit. Which is a shame because it may be the last funny movie either Murphy or Martin ever starred in.
In 2000, Graham finally (finally!) got her first chance to star in a movie. That movie was the quirky indie comedy, Committed.
Just to show you how committed I am to my readers, I actually watched Committed before writing this article. After doing so, I feel like I should be committed… to an institution.
Okay, I’m out of “committed” jokes. But that’s about as many jokes as the movie has going for it.
Graham stars as a young woman whose husband, played by Luke Wilson, abandons her with little explanation. Eventually, she goes searching for him despite the fact she does not know where he went. Based on a post card with a cactus on it and an illegible post mark, she decides to look for him in Texas. The entire state of Texas.
I won’t even attempt to describe the randomness of Committed. At one point, Graham is kissed on the mouth by a character played by Casey Affleck. Despite kissing him back, she scold him. “I’m married,” she says. “Plus you’re my brother!”
I only wish the rest of the movie was half as good as that line. Although I did think it was kind of cool that the movie co-starred Patricia Velásquez (pictured above with Graham). Both would later go on to guest roles on Arrested Development.
In 2001, Graham had a busy year with three releases. The first of which was the Farrelly brothers comedy, Say It Isn’t So.
Just a few years before, the Farrelly brothers had a massive hit with their gross-out comedy, There’s Something About Mary. That film made stars out of Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz. Say It Isn’t So attempted to do the same thing for Chris Klein and Heather Graham.
Obviously, lightning didn’t strike twice. Critics blasted the comedy in which Graham and Klein played a couple who discovers that they may be related. The incest humor didn’t play with audiences either. Say It Isn’t So bombed big time.
2001 was Graham’s year for being directed by brothers, because her next film was the Hughes brother’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel, From Hell.
From Hell starred a pre-Pirates Jonny Depp as a turn-of-the-century police inspector investigating Jack the Ripper. Graham played a prostitute who could be the next victim.
From Hell got mixed-to-positive reviews and was a respectable hit at the box office. Especially when you take into consideration that Depp was not yet the A-list powerhouse he would later become.
Graham ended the year with a role in the Ed Burns comedy/drama Sidewalks of New York.
I think Roger Ebert’s review of Sidewalks tells you everything you need to know:
“The movie lives at the intersection between Woody Allen and Sex and the City…[It] is funny without being hilarious, touching but not tearful, and articulate in the way that Burns is articulate, by nibbling earnestly around an idea as if afraid that the core has seeds.”
Sidewalks was another “prestige” movie that just didn’t register with critics or audiences.
In 2002, Graham played another porn star in the Hollywood/Bollywood mash-up, The Guru.
For this one, I think I’ll just let you watch the trailer. It will be easier that way.
The Guru hoped to bring the Bollywood musical to American audiences. But in spite of decent reviews, Americans weren’t having it. We barely tolerate American musicals.
In 2002, Graham also appeared in the erotic thriller, Killing Me Softly.
Hold on a second. Heather Graham starred in an erotic thriller in 2002 and I am just now hearing about it! What the hell happened there?
Well, Killing Me Softly was the first and only English-language film from Chinese director, Chen Kaige. Expectations for the film, co-starring Joseph Fiennes, were sky-high. To say the movie disappointed would be a tremendous understatement. As of this writing, it has a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
I have yet to see the film. But I had a hard time finding a picture for this article in which Graham wasn’t naked. With that in mind, Killing Me Softly must be pretty horrible. Because it would take a lot to keep guys from watching a movie with that much naked Heather Graham.
In 2003, Graham had an uncredited role in the Adam Sandler/Jack Nicholson comedy, Anger Management. It was a hit, but Graham was barely in it. She also had a starring role in Hope Springs with Colin Firth. That film got bad reviews and bombed at the box office.
By 2004, the former Felcity Shagwell’s “It Girl” status had been revoked. She was sentenced to starring in the Rosemary’s Baby rip-off, Blessed. The one saving grace is that she appeared in an episode of Arrested Development that year.
I am going to save us all some time. From 2004-2009, Graham starred in one bomb after another. Most of them are movies you have never heard of. She had a nine-episode guest run on Scrubs which lead to her getting her own series, Emily’s Reasons Why Not. Her show was cancelled after only one episode had aired.
In 2009, Graham had a small but memorable role as a stripper in The Hangover. Finally, Graham was in a hit!
The Hangover was such a big hit, that it inspired a sequel. Just about the entire cast returned except for Heather Graham. Although Graham will be returning for The Hangover 3.
The Hangover didn’t lead to much else. More direct-to-video releases. A cameo in Scream 4 (although I am not certain whether or not that was reused footage from Scream 2). Graham’s biggest movie post-Hangover was Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer which attempted to be the female Diary of a Wimpy Kid and failed miserably.
So, what the hell happened to Heather Graham? Well, after researching this article I have come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, James Woods was right. But I’m not happy about it.
More “What the Hell Happened?”
Kim Basinger Thora Birch Matthew Broderick Nicolas Cage Chevy Chase Kevin Costner Geena Davis Bridget Fonda Brendan Fraser Mel Gibson Cuba Gooding Jr. Heather Graham Melanie Griffith Steve Guttenberg Daryl Hannah Helen Hunt Michael Keaton Nicole Kidman Val Kilmer Jude Law Jennifer Jason Leigh Penelope Ann Miller Demi Moore Rick Moranis Eddie Murphy Mike Myers Michelle Pfeiffer Molly Ringwald Meg Ryan Winona Ryder Arnold Schwarzenegger Steven Seagal Elisabeth Shue Alicia Silverstone Christian Slater Mira Sorvino Wesley Snipes Sharon Stone Mena Suvari Uma Thurman John Travolta Kathleen Turner Robin Williams Debra Winger Sean Young Renee Zellweger
Posted on September 5, 2012, in Movies, What the Hell Happened? and tagged austin powers, boogie nights, entertainment, heather graham, movies, scream, swingers, the hangover, twin peaks. Bookmark the permalink. 47 Comments.
I am sorry to say that I still have no idea who she is….although I saw The Hangover. No other films listed here ring a bell.
I whole heartedly recommend Swingers and Boogie Nights.
Bowfinger is also pretty great.
I believe Mike Tyson shows up @ the end of Hangover 2
Dang, you’re right! So everyone came back except Graham. That’s a shame.
My first memory of Graham was seeing her in Drugstore Cowboy. My friends and I had a great time watching that movie. NO HATS ON BEDS!!!
While Graham was never a particularly versatile or super naturalistic actress, her charm and immediacy on camera is easy to underestimate. There are plenty of actors/actresses who are considered to be better then she is who do not posses those qualities to the degree that she does.
Also, she’s real purty.
I love the idea of having readers vote on stuff. Maybe we could vote on a mandatory Disney photo for you to collect on your trip, or a full review of one of the less well known attractions. I could do the same on my trip, too.
Feel free to set up any polls you like. Let me know if you have questions about how to do it. It took some trial and error to get this one working. It’s not exactly intuitive.
I never saw Drugstore Cowboy. Until I did this write-up, I had no idea she was in it. But I’ll definitely have to track it down. I always confused it with Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.
I agree that Graham has a lot of qualities that make her a pleasing presence on screen. Not just her looks, which are nice. It takes a certain quality to be able to play opposite Mike Myers or Eddie Murphy and not fade into the background. Graham was able to make those guys look good without stepping on their toes. And that’s a skill.
Usually, when I do these write-ups, I come away with an increased appreciation for the subject I am writing up. I have to admit, this is the first time that was not the case. As Graham’s career was unfolding, I was only seeing the highlights. I always perceived her to be right on the cusp of breaking out.
But now that I have sought out all of her other choices, well, she seems to fall back on strippers and porn stars a lot.
Her choice of roles did seem to be routinely sexualized. She maybe could’ve profited from a few more “good girl” type roles. From what I understand, her parents would’ve preferred that path as well. They were apparently very conservative and protective (who could blame them, and their fears may have been realized through her eventual career choices).
One rumour says that her parents stopped her from accepting a role in “Heathers.” It’s a great film as is, but wouldn’t it gain a little extra appeal if Graham had played the unhappy go-along cheerleader? Nothing against the actress who did the job, but Imagine a cast photo with Ryder, Slater, Doherty, AND Graham.
I could definitely see Graham as a minion Heather. She even had the first name for it.
Her family was indeed quite religious and I understand they stopped talking to her after Boogie Nights. Which is a shame. Perhaps after that, she figured why not go for broke.
I don’t know that I needed to see her play more “good girls” per se. But she had a real nack for light comedy. I really think she would have shined on TV if she had been on the right show. She was great on Arrested Development and Scrubs. But I guess shows of that caliber don’t come along every day.
If I could go back in time and change any element of her career, it would be Twin Peaks related. I would have to find some way to make Fire Walk With Me a hit so Lynch could make a follow-up film resolving the dangling plot threads from the TV show. But that has very little to do with Graham. That’s just my Twin Peaks obsession flaring up.
And I would have loved to have seen her follow up Austin Powers and Bowfinger with more light comedy. I understand the desire to work with the Farrelly bros, but that just didn’t work out. Also, totally random thought, doesn’t Graham seem like she would be right at home in a Tim Burton flick?
One conclusion I have come to time and again doing these articles is that there are only so many good roles for women in Hollywood these days. And the competition for them is fierce. There are not nearly enough to go around. If more established stars take all the good scripts, you get left with crap like Committed.
Finally, I do have to give Graham credit for this much. She rarely played it safe. She kept going back to off-the-wall choices when she probably could have made a fortune going the Reese Witherspoon route.
On the awards section for the movie on IMDB, it says she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. Not exactly a big deal but I’m surprised she got any kind of award nomination…her acting was competent at best!
Now she is getting press because she’s in The Hangover 3…I wonder if she has a big part or if it will just be a cameo like she had in the first one.
I suspect we’re looking at a cameo here. She’s barely present in the merkating materials. I would love to see her career pick up a little. I realize she’s not a great actress. But she’s a pretty girl with decent comedic timing.
She’s doing more TV. Had a pilot a couple years ago that wasn’t pick up, and will have a reoccuring role on Californication (cable TV) this year. She is more suited for TV. Plus, it would give her a lot more exposure and money than she gets for the no-budget films she’s been doing for the last decade that no one has seen.
That’s a good fit for her. She was good on Scrubs and Arrested Development.
I think her small role in “Arrested Development” was her best work. She was hilarious. She was also good in a recurring role on “Scrubs.”
I thought I was the only person who thought “Bowfinger” is underrated. I love that movie. As for “Killing Me Softly,” I’ll admit this. The movie is as bad as you’d imagine, but I’ve seen it more than once. Well, after the first times I just skip to certain scenes on the DVD…
I agree she was great on AD and Scrubs. But then again, those shows were great. They took folks like Carl Weathers and Tara Reid and made them look good. So I don’t know how much credit to give Graham and how much to give the shows she was on.
Bowfinger is an overlooked classic. I keep waiting for people to catch up.
I’m going to have to track down Killing Me Softly. It has to be more entertaining than Committed.
Agree about her TV work and how great Bowfinger was- i loved it – also loved Bulworth, another underrated classic- it’s interesting to hear you saw Vaughn as a star in Swingers- I loved her and John Favreau- never been able to stand Vaughn- everything about him bothers me-
I think she is perfect for Tim Burton—surprised he didn’t grab her- she is so quirky
and she is perfect quirky for the Coen’s too-
I hate to take away Tara Reid’s one good role, but I’d cast Graham in The Big Lebowski.
I had a connection with Swingers. I had a college buddy who was a lot like Vaughn’s character. And I suppose I was a lot like Mikey. I had slowly come to an epiphany about my old college pal similar to the one Mikey has at the end of Swingers. Long story short, it wasn’t just hysterical. I could relate to it a little too well.
I thought Favreau was very good in Swingers, btw. I just didn’t figure he had a Hollywood look. Swingers aside, I figured he would be a supporting actor. Which is basically how his acting career played out. I didn’t anticipate he would ever be so successful behind the camera.
I remember Bulworth getting pretty mixed reviews when it came out. And I remember thinking that while it had its flaws, it was a lot better than the reviews indicated. I laughed a lot. I really need to rewatch it because I haven’t seen it since it was in theaters. Graham is definitely a trade-up from Estella Warren, but there was no saving that dreadful Planet of the Apes remake.
Right around the time that Graham was hitting the peek of her career, Burton was in a bit of a slump. From 1996-2001 he made Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow and Planet of the Apes. I don’t know that any of those films would have been a big boost to Graham’s career. Although I think she would have done well in all of them.
Swapping out Christina Ricci for Graham in Sleepy Hollow seems like a lateral move to me. Although it would have been fun to see Graham and Depp working together again. I would definitely take Graham over Estella Warren. But that wouldn’t have saved the dreadful PotA remake.
You may have heard this before: Graham resembles another hot actress, Marley Shelton. Unlike Graham, though, she has never been in a major movie that was successful.
That’s for sure! They are dead ringers in a lot of ways. This illustrates a point about how there just aren’t enough parts out there for actresses in Hollywood. There are a lot of “Heather Grahams” out there and not enough parts for one of them. Much less the Marley Sheltons of the world.
I just realized that Marley was in Scream 4 herself. Weird.
She was. And when I watched it, I asked myself “Who is that actress who looks like a young Heather Graham?”
Scream 4 was really bad, btw. I so enjoyed the original. But each sequel chipped away at what made the first movie special. I didn’t think they could get much worse than Scream 3, and yet, they did.
Lost in Space really wasn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be…I thought it was a fun movie.
I knew someone would come along to defend LiS.
You’re not wrong. If you turn your brain off, it can be a fun popcorn flick. It’s not that much worse than the averegae Hollywood sci fi movie.
I think LiS got unfairly ganged up on because it was such a transparent attempt to start a franchise based on an old TV show. It’s success and sequels were taken for granted. So when it was so formulaic and, well, stupid, it became a target. I am admittedly being slightly unfair to it based on what it could have been with just a little more effort.
How about a WTHH? on Heather’s ‘Boogie Nights’ co-star Burt Reynolds? He’s had as many ups & downs as Travolta.
Someone on the FB page also recommended Reynolds. I plan to get to him. But it will be a large undertaking. I doubt I’ll get to him this year.
Pretty sure you’ll see him in 2013.
Burt Reynolds kind of (within the context of the WTHHT series) strikes me as a male Kim Basinger. Both were at their peak, sex symbol type actors whose careers took a serious hit due to financial issues (i.e. bankruptcy) and messy divorces (Burt was married to blonde bombshell on her own, Loni Anderson). Both Burt and Kim in the mid-late ’90s made pseudo comebacks to respectability (i.e. “Boogie Nights” and “LA Confidential respectively), that somehow turned out to be anti-climatic.
i definitely think burt reynolds, kurt russell and nick nolte need write ups.
I have plans to do all three eventually. Of the three, I think Kurt Russell is likely to happen first. I’ve been watching a lot of John Carpenter movies recently.
In the late 90s I had the impression she was popular because of all the big movies she was in at the time. Then she disappeared for like ten years doing all those straight-to-video movies (though I do remember seeing ads for her TV show that lasted 1 episode). Can’t say she was missed. She’s not a great actress, but she doesn’t have any charm either…nothing to set her apart.
Yeah, I had the perception that she was on her way up based on Swingers, Boogie Nights and Austin Powers. But in retrospect, she didn’t really have much to do with those movies’ success.
Exactly. Any pretty actress could have played those roles. She was easily replaceable. Though, to her credit, she was funny in Bowfinger.
That is the one thing I have to give her. She excelled at light comedy. That’s why I am surprised she never made it on a sitcom. But I guess there were dozens if not hundreds of other girls who could fill those roles.
Does that therefore, make Heather Graham the female, ’90s equivalent to Steve Guttenberg!?
I can’t equate the two as I have always had a major movie crush on Graham. You may be on to something, but I see the Gute as a regular guy who got extremely lucky and Graham as a super hottie who should have worked more.
By the way, the James Woods quote about Susan Sarandon is hilarious and so true.
Perhaps Heather Graham’s problem is that she had what could be regarded as four major studio flops in a row: “Say It Isn’t So”, “From Hell”, “The Guru” and “Killing Me Softly”. So that more than anything, killed a lot of momentum for her. You can also make the argument that Heather Graham was for the most part, always an actress who was really strong and likable in certain things and then terrible in others. I’ve read theories on her IMDb message board that she probably also didn’t have a huge female fanbase, which actresses need to keep getting studio work (since men can pretty fickle when it comes to starlets).
Yeah, I think all of those things contributed. I was always surprised she didn’t settle into sitcom work based on her guest spots on Scrubs and Arrested Development. It seemed like a good fit. But I guess the one show she attempted was a huge flop too.
Were The Guru and Killing Me Softly really major studio films? Guru had a limited release and KMS went straight to DVD.
I’m going to say no, they weren’t. I was a Graham fan when they were released and I had never heard of those movies until I wrote this article.
And From Hell was a disappointment, but not a flop. But her box office track record was unquestionably bad.
The Decade’s Ten Biggest Flameouts — The Rae Dawn Chong Effect:
http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/the-decades-ten-biggest-flameouts.php
Heather Graham
Best Known For: Boogie Nights (1997)
Last Significant Role: Minor part in The Hangover (2009)
What Happened: She can’t act; Hollywood figured It out.
‘Emily’s Reasons Why Not’: Because Once Was Enough:
http://splitsider.com/2013/03/emilys-reasons-why-not-because-once-was-enough/
There must be a special type of indignity felt when you are canceled after one episode – only nineteen English language shows throughout the entire history of television have had that honor, after all. After being chosen among multitudes of other pilots, to be one of the select few to actually make it to air, to only be told that twenty two minutes was more than enough, thanks?
Emily’s Reasons Why Not is the one show out of the lucky nineteen that is most likely remembered by the American public, mostly due to its decent proximity to the present, because that Heather Graham lady starred in it, and because ABC put a lot of publicity muscle behind the show that they so quickly threw to the curb. (Some sports fans may still recall legendary college football broadcaster Keith Jackson — 77 years old at the time and working his last game — struggling to read the promotional copy for Why Not five days before the series premiere/finale, in between plays of the 2006 Rose Bowl between Texas and USC, which was witnessed by 35.6 million people.) The network was counting on the show to anchor their Winter/Spring Monday night lineup, which on schedule would suddenly not be broadcasting Monday Night Football, due to the NFL’s insistence on not playing twelve months a year.
ABC head of programming Steve McPherson wasn’t necessarily relying on the same audience to keep watching their channel on that evening, but because Why Not had a similar sounding pedigree to Sex and the City — Based on a book! Female protagonist! Female protagonist talking about dating dudes! — it might draw a healthy amount of eyeballs and buzz. Heather Graham was never more popular as as she was from acting in Boogie Nights in 1997, but she did guest star in nine episodes of Scrubs as Dr. Molly Clock during the show’s fourth season and had a memorable performance as a Saddam Hussein loving teacher on one episode of Arrested Development, proving that comedic television wasn’t beneath her or out of her element. They got Macy Gray to sing the theme song! Never mind that allegedly ABC bought the show from Sony without seeing the pilot…
If you learn anything from Brilliantly Canceled, it is that you should always ask to see the pilot. Emily’s Reasons Why Not, which was green-lit to produce six episodes without being asked to provide a single frame of film, premiered on January 9, 2006, and was officially canceled on January 10, 2006. “Only” 6.2 million people witnessed it that night, but thanks to YouTube, you can watch it right here, right now.
Did the show deserve to be canceled after one episode? Considering all of the garbage television has presented us with, no. But it is obvious that if it went through the standard pilot season rigamarole the pilot would have been rewritten and reshot, possibly with a few cast changes, hopefully with joke punch-ups. The only reason it flickered in front of some people’s faces at all as it was is because it makes little financial sense to buy a show and not put it on the air.
What happened to Heather Graham?:
http://media.gunaxin.com/what-happened-to-sexy-hotheather-graham/1644
So what did happen to Heather Graham? As in, why does it seem like she’s fallen off the face of the earth?
I guess you could say this happens to a lot of actresses. She had good looks, but not so much on the acting talent side of things. And careers for actresses on the whole don’t have the longevity of their male counterparts. Let’s take a look at her career path.
Her first credited acting appearance was in an episode of Growing Pains in 1987 (maybe she can hang out with Leo DiCaprio at the reunion?). She appeared in a variety of movies and TV shows along the way including the critically acclaimed Twins Peaks and in one of my favorite overlooked movies, Diggstown.
But she really hit it big as Rollergirl in the 1997 hit Boogie Nights. A string of major studio movies followed: Scream 2, Lost in Space, and the major blockbuster Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me as Felicity Shagwell. But after that, the roles and movies tended to get smaller. Her much maligned turn as an Irish hooker in From Hell didn’t help the perception that she was just another pretty face. Soon her biggest work was on TV. A reoccuring role on Scrubs got a good reception from fans and critics, but her own TV show, Emily’s Reason Why Not, was quickly cancelled.
Now she’s doing obscure movies. It’s still work, but have we written off Heather Graham too quickly? At least she’s not doing her own reality show like Denise Richards, another pretty face from the late 90s. I say we need more Heather Graham. Her fifteen minutes aren’t quite up.
What the Hell Happened To Heather Graham:
http://www.zimbio.com/Heather+Graham/articles/DFqHN06DLeg/Hell+Happened+Heather+Graham
Heather Graham is a beautiful woman that can really act. Have you seen her in Boogie Nights? She’s amazing as Roller Girl and I don’t just mean her boobs. But I have to ask what happened to her? Did she try to hold on to cute to long? Did she try to play sexy and not smart? She was just in the Hangover and got good reviews but that doesn’t make up for not knowing when to grow up and move on from just sexy….She should learn from her screen co-star Julianne Moore, both beautiful but a well rounded actress who is aging very well….And Heather should have to apologize for this outfit…..
Whatever Happened To… Heather Graham:
http://fetchmemylolly.tumblr.com/post/25138246487
The character of Annie Blackburn was Heather Graham’s first stand-out role, after playing support characters in I Love You To Death, Drugstore Cowboy and Shout. The character, even in today’s terms, is outstanding. Annie was presented with a complex and emotional backstory. In more simplistic terms, if Audrey was the femme fatal, Annie was the angel. Her clothes, hair and body language all conveyed a simple and understated grace, not frigidity. While there were religious and spiritual issues conveyed surrounding her sexuality, to me, it never seemed to veer off in the direction of, “I live in a convent and have a chastity belt, so no touchy-touchy”. Her and Coop did end up having some afternoon delight, and every fan-girl across the world who wanted to hold hands with Coop and share cherry pie with him cried into their pillows.
The portrayal of Annie proved that Heather could act. This was reinforced again in her role as Rollergirl in Boogie Nights. Yeah, you saw her t*ts and yeah, she simulated sex scenes, but she perfected the “lost little girl” character; she desperately missed being part of a nuclear family and set out to create her own and cast those around her in those roles (The most obvious example being the bedroom scene with Julianne Moore, when both are coked off their t*ts, and Rollergirl says “I want you to be my Mom, Amber. I’ll ask you if you’re my Mom, and you say yes, okay?”). She still has misgivings about her decision to be in porn, and her desperate and degrading slide into the much more tackier world of videotape is shocking in its brutality of not only her act of violence and revenge, but also because she is brutalised and nearly raped, with the camera rolling and with Jack giving direction. Rollergirl (like the characters of Amber and Jack) was a brilliant and dynamic support character to Dirk’s main story, and Heather acted her t*ts off.
Then there was this: LOST IN SPACE
Heather plays a “doctor” (LMAO) who struts around in a skintight onesie that somehow managed to add several cup sizes to her chesticals. On a sidenote, Gary Oldman was essentially sober during the period of time in which this movie was made. He was NOT sober during the period of time in which JFK, Dracula and Leon were made. Just saying, is all.
From there, it goes from the ridiculous (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) to WTF (Say It Isn’t So, with Chris Klein) to I Can’t Believe You Got Cast In This Movie (From Hell) to Are You F***ing Kidding, Did You Even READ The Script (Blessed, where she plays a woman who is impregnated with the sperm of Satan. I’M NOT JOKING) to I Need To Pay The Rent (the ABC television series, Emily’s Reasons Why Not, which was cancelled directly after the first episode premiered) to I Don’t Really Know What This Movie Is About And It’s Kind Of Pretentious But It Has An Awesome Cast (Boogie Woogie) to I’m Not Even Acting Anymore (Stripper in The Hangover).
Heather plays a “doctor” (LMAO) who struts around in a skintight onesie that somehow managed to add several cup sizes to her chesticals. On a sidenote, Gary Oldman was essentially sober during the period of time in which this movie was made. He was NOT sober during the period of time in which JFK, Dracula and Leon were made. Just saying, is all.
From there, it goes from the ridiculous (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) to WTF (Say It Isn’t So, with Chris Klein) to I Can’t Believe You Got Cast In This Movie (From Hell) to Are You F***ing Kidding, Did You Even READ The Script (Blessed, where she plays a woman who is impregnated with the sperm of Satan. I’M NOT JOKING) to I Need To Pay The Rent (the ABC television series, Emily’s Reasons Why Not, which was cancelled directly after the first episode premiered) to I Don’t Really Know What This Movie Is About And It’s Kind Of Pretentious But It Has An Awesome Cast (Boogie Woogie) to I’m Not Even Acting Anymore (Stripper in The Hangover).
What the f*** happened?!
Yes, she dumbed it down completely when she did Austin Powers, but that movie grossed OVER 300 million squid. She would (or should?) of had some pulling power following that, some control over the next project to do, what scripts to read, etc. So she goes for a movie with one of the douchebags from American Pie, directed by a complete unknown?! How f***ing high was her agent? More to the point, what the f*** has she been on since 2000?
Is this just another example of the Twin Peaks curse? Sheryl Lee was last seen as a strungout, hillybilly prostitute in Texas Killing Fields (which is actually a great movie, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t acting), Sherilyn Fenn appeared as a corpse in NCIS and Lara Flynn Boyle had sex with Jack Nicholson.
Assessing Heather Graham: License to Strip:
http://www.pajiba.com/career_assessments/heather-graham-career-assessment-license-to-strip.php
Subject: Heather Graham, 41-year old American actress
Date of Assessment: June 8, 2011
Positive Buzzwords: Nudity, beauty, sleep
Negative Buzzwords: Romcom, limited appeal and talent
The Case: People like to talk about the so-called “downward trajectory” that Heather Graham’s career has supposedly taken. Still, she’s worked steadily since her first movie role in 1988’s License to Drive (the one where both Coreys stuffed her in a car trunk), which she followed up with an acclaimed turn in Drugstore Cowboy and an adorable character, Annie Blackburn, on the second season of “Twin Peaks.” Then, she toiled away in relative obscurity for nearly five years until she stunned audiences (or at least myself) as Jon Favreau’s dance partner in the last act of Swingers and appeared alongside Robert Downey Jr. in Two Girls and a Guy. Then, Heather became the very naked Rollergirl in Boogie Nights, which was a pretty overrated movie but highlighted not only her physical assets but also her ability to play a very damaged character and not just some bobblehead.
Soon, she was suddenly everywhere at once with a cameo in Scream 2 and several mainstream (financial) hits like Lost in Space, Bowfinger, From Hell, The Guru, and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me as the gorgeous Felicity Shagwell. Heather was never a great acting talent, but she had spunk and even convinced Fat Bastard that he was a great lay, which is no small feat. That should count for something, but I’m afraid that it merely qualified her as arm candy instead of as a box office draw in itself.
Just as suddenly, Heather disappeared from the public consciousness. Nowadays, most of Heather Graham’s oeuvre (and I use that term mostly ironically) is utterly forgettable and not even worth mentioning here. Upon first consideration, I was inclined to give Heather some credit for not going down the romcom heroine path, which certainly must have been an option to her with those big blue eyes and all of that blonde hair (in manner of today’s closest example, Amanda Seyfried). Then I realized the error of my ways because Graham has attempted, at various points, to revive her career in a very inauspicious subgenre of romantic comedy; that is, Graham has subjected herself to repeated instances of the pregnancy-oriented romcom. One of them, Miss Conception, involved Graham affecting a posh English accent while receiving the horrible news that she’s only got one egg left and merely two weeks to find a stud so as not to waste the opportunity. The second one, Baby on Board, featured Graham as a spurned wife who hopes to drive her cheating husband (Jerry O’Connell) out of their home, War of the Roses style. And the third movie, Blessed wasn’t a romcom but attempted to go all Rosemary’s Baby by impregnating her with the seed of Satan himself. These are not only the very sort of roles for which Heather is not believable, but they’re also ridiculous takes on the female sex for which she should be ashamed to participate.
All of this is really a shame, for Heather has provided (on rare occasions) a few glimpses of real emotion in some respectable indie flicks — Committed, Adrift in Manhattan, and Broken — but these films didn’t get the distribution required to prove to audiences that she’s worth watching. On the small screen, Heather’s had some moderate success as a supporting player in one episode of “Arrested Development” and a recurring stint of “Scrubs.” However, her very brief outing as a television leading lady (in “Emily’s Reasons Why Not”) lasted just one episode before it was yanked for poor ratings.
Since then, Heather enjoyed a bit of unexpected success by playing the prostitute role in The Hangover movie, but has that caused anyone to watch any of her movies that followed, such as Boogie Woogie, Father of Invention, 5 Days of War, or The Flying Machine? Nope.
Prognosis: So now Heather Graham turns to children’s movies as “Awesome Aunt Opal” in this weekend’s Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer. Yes, the woman who loves to get naked onscreen is now starring in a kid’s movie. While she has six movies in various states of production and one in development, it’s doubtful that any of us will ever have the chance to see them, and once she loses her looks, Heather Graham will be gone forever. On a positive note, that’ll just give her a chance to sleep more.
Heather did good in the overrated Hangover movie. and looks great, what age barrier !?