(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sat 13 December 2025 3:30, UK
William Hurt was blown away by the acting prowess of one of his most famous co-stars.
In the late 1980s, there was a compelling argument to be made that William Hurt was the single greatest actor of his generation, and although he got into movies late when he starred in the science fiction thriller Altered States in 1980, he quickly became renowned for his dedication and willingness to transform himself.
Later, it was his performance as the political prisoner Luis Molina that earned Hurt the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’, but his other great ‘80s films included Broadcast News, Body Heat, Gorky Park, and Children of a Lesser God.
Given the acclaim that he had received for his work in The Big Chill, which was written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, there was a tremendous amount of anticipation for what their next project together would be.
While Kasdan was known for writing films that were emotionally fulfilling yet quite entertaining, his project, The Accidental Tourist, was certainly his darkest script to date, in which Hurt starred as Macon Leary, a writer of travel guides from Baltimore, coping with the death of his son. The tragedy had destroyed his marriage with his wife, Sarah, played by Kathleen Turner, and led him to being encased in the dark clouds of depression, and it’s during this seemingly hopeless period in his life that Macon is able to strike up a friendship with the eccentric animal hospital employee Muriel Pritchett, played by Geena Davis.
Davis was quite beloved by her co-workers, but hadn’t quite found the role that would announce her as a star. On the other hand, Hurt had already worked with Davis’ husband, Jeff Goldblum, on The Big Chill, but as he recounted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, it was her acting process that blew him away. “Geena Davis is a genius,” he said, “She’s completely underrated. I was working 90-hour weeks. We were working on this minimalism thing, so it was very quiet, very deft”.
The Accidental Tourist was by no means an easy shoot, as the film dealt with emotionally complex material and was quite ahead of its time in the way that it discussed mental health issues. According to Hurt, Davis had the right attitude for the film, which ended up creating some rewarding moments.
“She was trying to deal with her nerves by being jocular on the set with the crew, and I was getting a little perturbed,” Hurt explained, “So we went to Larry’s trailer, and I said, ‘Geena, I have too much of a load for the set to be jokey’. She turned to me and said, ‘Is that all?’ The next day was when we shot the scene, when he [Leary] goes to her and says, ‘I can’t’, and she just opens the door and leads him in. Larry and I looked at each other and went, ‘That’s it, she’s home’. She never looked back.”
Although Hurt’s work in the film was met with polite praise, Davis was hailed as a critical darling and won the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’. Beyond the fact that she had breathed life into one of Kasdan’s most complex characters, Davis had managed to deal with Hurt, who had complicated relationships with many of his female co-stars, and while it may be more difficult to watch The Accidental Tourist in retrospect given the allegations of domestic violence made against its leading man, Davis’ luminous performance is what makes the film still worth revisiting.
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