“My Hero” – when Hollywood banned Anne Heche for her lover, only Harrison Ford fought for her

After her car accident, Anne Heche was in a coma for several days. Then the life support machines were turned off. In the 1990s, Anne Heche was a rising star in Hollywood. She had played the twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love in the hit series “Another World” and starred alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the film Volcano in the then-popular disaster genre. And then everything broke. Anne Heche fell in love with a woman. Ellen DeGeneres. And she went public with her love and that was anything but natural in 1997. Heche took her lover to the red carpet for the premiere of “Volcano” as a “Plus One” accompaniment.

A daring decision in prudish America – of course you could be gay or lesbian back then. But as a comedian, as a side-tap, as a lead actress? She had been threatened before. “At the premiere of ‘Volcano’ I announced that I was going to take Ellen on a date and was told if Ellen came along I would lose my Fox contract,” she said on ABC’s Dancing in 2020 with the stars”. Ellen DeGeneres advised against it, she didn’t want her lover to ruin her career.

career ruined

“At that moment, Ellen took my hand and said, ‘Do what they say’, I said, ‘No thanks’. I took Ellen to the premiere and was escorted out by security before the film was even over. I wasn’t allowed going to my own after-party for fear they might get pics of me with a woman.”

She was originally slated to star in the action rom-com Six Days Seven Nights, but her performance there was canceled immediately. “I wouldn’t have gotten that movie,” she said. Until the male star spoke up and stepped into the breach for her.

“After they told me I wouldn’t get the part again because I took Ellen to the premiere of ‘Volcano,’ Harrison Ford called me the same day.”

Harrison Ford was then at the height of his fame, he could choose the films – his name alone was enough to guarantee success. And he threw that in the balance to keep Heche in the film.

“He was a hero.”

“He said to me, ‘Honestly, my love, I don’t care who you sleep with. We’re going to do the best romantic comedy there is and we’ll see you on set,'” Heche said.

Ford himself has never spoken about his commitment.

“Harrison Ford is one of my heroes. He fought for me.” And further: “I would go to a desert island with him every day.” An allusion to the hit film in which she is stranded on an island in the South Seas with the grumpy pilot Ford. “He’s an extraordinary person.”

And then she said again: “Harrison Ford really is my hero. I have to give him this honor because the truth is that I owe my entire public life to him.”

Banned from Hollywood

But despite his efforts, she was banned from Hollywood. “I was in a relationship with Ellen DeGeneres for three and a half years and the stigma attached to that relationship was so bad that I got fired from my multi-million dollar movie deal.” Because of this love, she “was not allowed to work in a studio for 10 years”. But as the Guardian aptly wrote, Anne Heche was too “stylish and smart” for mainstream Hollywood productions. “Volcano” and “Six Days Seven Nights” are the most conventional and well-behaved productions in which she has acted. Handsome, but her real acting strength lay elsewhere.

Incidentally, compared to the superstar Ford, Heche only received pocket money for “Six Days, Seven Nights”. “I think on ‘Six Days, Seven Nights’ I made $125,000 in four months of shooting. And Harrison – and I know this because I made fun of him – he made $20 million.”

Abrupt separation

Anne Heche and Ellen were a couple from 1997 to 2000. They met at the Vanity Fair Oscar party. Heche later said the evening turned her life upside down in a moment: “I saw Ellen on the other side of a crowded room and didn’t know anything about her except that I was just attracted to her.” Heche’s later relationships also began spontaneously and ended just as abruptly. Ellen DeGeneres later told the Los Angeles Times that the breakup had surprised her: “Anne walked out the door and I haven’t spoken to her since, I don’t have any answers.”