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The tragic story of Anne Heche being blacklisted from Hollywood
Anne Heche skyrocketed to fame with a rapid transition from soaps to starring in blockbusters like Donnie Brasco alongside Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. Then, overnight, her fame was curtailed in a condemnable fashion by the conservative nature of Hollywood. When she came out at the height of her career, the blossoming star was suddenly blacklisted for sexual preference as a lesbian in a ground-breaking fashion.
Recalling the moment that she decided to come out to the world, Heche commented: “Sometimes taking a step and being the first to do something, how do we move forward without that? One of the things we forget is that we can’t skip steps.” Thus, her trailblazing moment was an illuminating moment for Hollywood even if the response was tragic and condemnable at the time.
Heche further commented on this when she added: “It did not feel good. But what it also does, is to be able to give us a chance to be able to talk outside of the cancel culture. I was cancelled. I was patient zero. I was the first one out. However, that storybook opened up,” she claims. “What I was standing up for was the right to love who you want to love, period.”
Her stance was one of choice and love and she says that having “illuminated some of that” to get us to where we are now is “heavenly”. She championed the LGBTQ community at a time when it was taboo. Thus, Hollywood responded in a despicable fashion.
In fact, Heche was even kicked out of her own movie première because producers didn’t want her to be photographed with a woman. “My movie première for Volcano, I had told them that I was taking Ellen as my date and I was told if I took Ellen I would lose my Fox contract,” she once alleged.
Naturally, this also had a huge impact on her castability for future roles. However, thankfully, she received support from her co-stars and was able to highlight the short-sighted bigotry of Hollywood rather than fading into the background. One of these stars was her “hero”, Harrison Ford.
Shortly after coming out, her planned rom-com, Six Days Seven Nights, hit the rails. Amid rumours of Hollywood blacklisting the star for her public relationship with Ellen DeGeneres, Ford, her co-star in the film, vowed for her continued involvement and ventured: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn who you’re sleeping with. We’re gonna make the best romantic comedy there is, and I’ll see ya on the set,” Heche recalled.
Adding: “He’s one of my heroes. He fought a battle for me, and I would be on any desert island with him any day.” This highlights the importance that those of us outside of the debate support the trailblazers who make the bold leap.
The film got to see the light of day and her defiant persistence forced Hollywood to change its stance on the matter. She refused to go away despite censors’ attempts to cancel her.
