Holly Hunter is headed to HBO. The Oscar winner has signed on to star in an untitled family drama from Alan Ball, creator of “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood,” THR reports. The premium cable network seems to be excited about the project — they gave it a straight-to-series order, meaning that we won’t have to wait to hear whether or not the pilot got picked up, so Hunter is 100 percent coming to the small screen.
“The project focuses on a contemporary multiracial family: a philosophy professor; his [psychologist] wife; their three adopted children from Somalia, Vietnam, and Colombia; and their sole biological child,” THR writes. “This seemingly perfect, progressive family is harboring deep rifts. One of the children begins to see things others cannot. Is it mental illness or something else? The series is a tragicomic meditation on the complicated forces at work on us all in America today.”
Hunter will play Audrey Black, the matriarch of the family. A former therapist, Audrey is now working as a psychologist in the corporate world — a job she struggles to reconcile with her progressive politics. “She is a smart, caring woman who believes she knows what’s best for everyone and has no problem telling them,” THR summarizes. “But with her husband now fighting depression and her children mostly grown, Audrey finds herself somewhat adrift.”
In 2013, Hunter reunited with Jane Campion, her “Piano” director, for the feminist murder-mystery series “Top of the Lake.” She’s spoken about the differences between the roles available to women on television versus film, suggesting that films are being made primarily for audiences of young men. “For every movie that you go see, how many leading male roles are there in any given movie and how many leading female roles are there?” she asked. She explained, “There may be five or six really good roles for guys and maybe one for a woman.” “In television, they’re making series for a different audience,” Hunter said. “I think this is old news now.” She starred in TNT’s “Saving Grace” from 2007–2010 and earned two Emmy nods for her portrayal of a self-destructive police detective. The series was created by Nancy Miller (“Nashville,” “The Closer”).
Hunter is a four-time Oscar nominee and won for her performance in “The Piano.” Her recent credits include “Strange Weather,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and “Paradise.”
