Why You Never Hear From Heather Graham Anymore
Actress Heather Graham became a household name in 1991 as Annie Blackburn in the TV series Twin Peaks and continued to dazzle for years in big roles: Boogie Nights (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), The Hangover (2009). But this former leading lady has been flying under the radar lately, so we investigated Graham's incognito lifestyle, and guess what? She's still a super fly woman. Check it out.
She's a philanthropist
Heather Graham doesn't have time for zillions of media appearances because she's busy saving the world. Graham's philanthropic work focuses on sponsoring impoverished children in Cambodia through the Cambodian Children's Fund. She serves on the organization's board of directors, and in 2011, she appeared on NBC's Today show to discuss her zeal for the organization.
She traveled to Cuba
Unlike many Hollywood stars, Graham's travels steer clear of paparazzi. Case in point: she spent the 2015 holiday season in Cuba, where Wi-Fi is a luxury even movie stars can't afford. "You cannot go online unless you go to a hotel," she told Live with Kelly And Michael!. "You have to buy a card. Then you try to get online, and then they say...the Wi-Fi is not working today. It is illegal to have Wi-Fi in your home there," she said. "I only checked my email once in two weeks."
She wrote a movie
While suffering through a bad breakup, Graham decided to channel her heartache into a movie script called Half-Magic. She describes her directorial debut as a raunchy "sex comedy" that stars Graham, Angela Kinsey, and Molly Shannon. According to the Huffington Post, Graham drew inspiration for her film from comedic duo Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. "I made a movie that I myself would want to go see," she said, adding that she wrote the script to "question" Hollywood's gender bias. "I think men can have all these wild sexual adventures in movies and it's OK, but if you watch women in movies, you don't get to see as many points of view...on [a] female perspective on sex."
She does voice-over acting
For her first voice-over acting role, Graham lent her pipes to Norm of the North, a children's animated film about a polar bear released in January 2016. You probably didn't hear about it because the critics certainly didn't love it, and the movie debuted during the dead time following all the holiday blockbusters. Regardless, Graham liked the experience, especially since voice-over acting allowed her to show up to work, "looking like a slob" (aka looking like the rest of us.) She told People that voice-over work "really expands the options of what you can play, you don't need to play what you look like, you can play anything."
Though the movie garnered lackluster reviews in theaters, Graham is excited to show the film to the Cambodian kids she sponsors. They've asked to watch her work before, but until recently, Graham didn't have a lot of kid-friendly fare on her resume.
She sleeps a lot
"I love sleeping," a 46-year-old Graham told The Guardian in 2016. "When I tell people how much I sleep sometimes, they are horrified. I basically sleep between nine and 12 hours a night."
Permission granted to pick jaw up off floor and commence feeling super envious. Seriously, how does she do that?
But wait, there's more. When asked how she relaxes, Graham answered, "Once a week I spend a day luxuriating in bed. I like staying in my house, pottering around and maybe cooking or just laying around reading. I love doing yoga and transcendental meditation."
She’s been dealing with personal drama
In September 2017, Us Weekly reported that Graham had split from her boyfriend of over one year, Tommy Alastra. The split reportedly happened six weeks prior to the report, although it's unclear why it actually happened.
A breakup is never a fun process for anyone. On the bright side, though: perhaps it will inspire her to write another script.
Her big attempt at TV stardom didn't pan out
Back in January 2006, Graham appeared to be on the verge of becoming TV's next Carrie Bradshaw by way of the ABC comedy Emily's Reasons Why Not. However, those hopes proved to be incredibly short-lived; ABC canceled the series after airing just one episode, despite a heavy and costly marketing campaign. Although Graham continued to find work on TV, most famously on the Showtime series Californication, having a notorious flop on your resume probably doesn't sit well with TV executives.
The Hangover Part III was really, really bad
Graham's role in the surprise 2009 hit The Hangover was a favorite among fans, so much so that her absence was greatly felt in the film's 2011 sequel. "So many people said to me, 'We wish you'd been in The Hangover II' or 'We wish you and Stu had ended up together,'" she told The Independent in 2013. "I ran into Billy Crystal one time and he told me, 'I really wanted your characters to end up together.' I thought how amazing that a really famous comedian had seen the film and felt that way!"
Graham was eventually asked to appear in the third movie in the comedy series, The Hangover Part III. Sadly for her, it proved to be too little, too late. The film was ripped to shreds by critics, and compared to the first two movies, grossly underwhelmed at the box office. By that point, much like an actual hangover, American audiences were ready for the horrible symptoms to be over once and for all.
But her future looks pretty bright
Although Graham's filmography has been filled with more hits than misses, a number of upcoming projects appear to suggest that things will turn out just fine for her. Among the best: a role in the David Cross comedy Bliss, on which she will star alongside Episodes' Stephen Mangan; and a part on NBC's highly anticipated Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders. If the latter turns out to be as popular as FX's The People v. OJ Simpson, expect to hear a heckuva lot more from Graham in the not-so-distant future.