Whatever Happened To Daryl Hannah?
In the 1980s, Daryl Hannah established herself as a sex symbol with her breakthrough role as Madison, the mermaid with whom Tom Hanks' character falls in love in Ron Howard's 1984 fantasy, "Splash." Prior to that, the actress had appeared in minor roles in Brian De Palma's "The Fury" and Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" in 1978 and 1982, respectively. Through the remainder of the decade, Hannah appeared in supporting roles in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" and Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors", and starred as the titular lead in "Roxanne."
In the 1990s, however, Hannah saw lesser roles bringing her the same level of recognition she enjoyed in the previous decade, which the actress attributes to turning 30 in an industry where ageism runs rampant, especially for women. In 2003 and 2004, audiences were delighted by Hannah's villainous role as Elle Driver in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies, which many hoped would be a comeback for the actress.
Nevertheless, Hannah fell out of the spotlight in subsequent years, partly on her own terms. Apart from making headlines for being arrested a few times for her activism, Hannah has been attracted to other ventures in the years since, having admitted to discovering what truly matters to her aside from acting, along with revelations about the darker shades of Hollywood and its inherent sexism. Fans have had questions about what happened to the once widely recognized actress and sex icon of the 1980s, so here's everything Daryl Hannah had been up to these past few years.
Found her true calling in environmental activism
Many celebrities have used their fame to help others on important social issues and causes. For Daryl Hannah, acting has become a second priority after her efforts at saving the environment. Not only has the actress been engaged in various social causes for environmentalism, including several protests that resulted in a few arrests, but also leads a sustainable lifestyle at home.
When asked by TODAY whether acting or activism was more important for her, Hannah responded, "Acting is my creative release and also what I do professionally. My advocacy work is just my survival instinct kicking in, when I see that our species is going in a really dangerous direction and compromising our life-support system. I'm trying to educate myself and spread information so that hopefully we can all make wiser decisions."
In another interview with Swindle Magazine in 2007, Hannah admitted to being more drawn toward her advocacy work. "It's weird to talk about movies. I can talk forever and ever about the different subjects I cover in my video blog and all the ones I want to cover and I find all these things fascinating," she said, referring to her blog, "DHLoveLife," where the actress provided sustainable solutions that viewers could implement in their own lifestyles. Hannah continued, "But movies, they are what they are. I think that is why I am drawn to my second act in life ... by next year I pretty much want to transition full time into focusing on that kind of work."
Had been arrested a few times for her protests
Daryl Hannah's passion for safeguarding the environment has led to her having a few brushes with the law. The actress had been arrested a total of five times at various protests. Her first arrest came in 2006 when Hannah protested in unison with over 350 farmers against officials trying to demolish a large urban farm in South Central Los Angeles, by tying herself to a walnut tree.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Hannah said, "It was my first act of nonviolent disobedience for which I went to prison. I spent three-and-a-half weeks on that farm and made sure the story remained in the news and people kept talking about it. The poor are the worst hit by environmental degradation. I believe they need to have a voice and as an actor it is my duty to sensitize the public about these issues."
Her next few arrests came in 2009, during a protest against mountaintop removal in West Virginia, in 2011, for protesting outside the White House against a proposed oil pipeline, and in 2012 and 2013, for protesting against the same pipeline in Texas and at the White House, respectively. Hannah talked with TODAY about why she continues her activism despite her arrests: "I believe that civil disobedience is an incredibly important part of shifting a paradigm ... In my case, it's not something I thought about or decided to do or planned, they occurred when I decided to stand in solidarity with the people who were suffering the effects."
Her efforts at exposing sex trafficking
In addition to her environmental activism, Daryl Hannah has also been involved in efforts that aim to expose sex slavery around the world (for which she had been making a documentary) and to provide rehabilitation to victims of sex trafficking. The actress, after having her curiosity sparked by a friend on the matter of sex slavery, decided to travel around the world to educate herself on the same.
Hannah said in an interview with Marie Claire in 2008: "I went to Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos. But the problem is everywhere — in South America, the Eastern bloc countries, even in America — not only in Southeast Asia, where it's right out in the open. And then I started working on my documentary."
For the making of her documentary, the actress had to use her acting skills while she was undercover entering brothels. "I basically had to do some of my best acting, because otherwise it could have been a dangerous situation," Hannah explained. "I had to play the part of a pervert; I'd go in with a guy, and we'd act like we were a couple looking for a kid. The pimps didn't question us — they would just show us everyone they had available. In some cases, they were 8-year-old girls sleeping on a couch with fluffy slippers."
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
She is on the boards of various organizations fighting climate change and sex trafficking
As a result of her activism, several organizations approached Daryl Hannah with requests to join their causes, most of which she entertained. In 2007, Hannah told Swindle Magazine, "Last year I really ran myself ragged trying to help as many people as I could support. My natural instinct is to want to help everybody, but you can't."
Hannah joined the board of the Somaly Mam Foundation, which is devoted to ending sexual slavery and aiding survivors of sex trafficking. She spoke to Marie Claire about Somaly Mam, saying, "She's a former victim of sex slavery who now rescues girls across Southeast Asia. To me, she's got the greatest shelters, because most [others] are run by missionaries, and while their intentions are good, they do have a mission to spread their belief system. Somaly's shelters strictly help victims get their lives back."
Hannah was also an honorary councilor for World Future Council, a foundation focused on sustainable development and environmental protection and also sits on the boards of the Sylvia Earle Alliance and Mission Blue (both founded by marine biologist Sylvia Earle), ecoAmerica, Environmental Media Association, and the Action Sports Environmental Coalition. Being an advocate for biodiesel, Hannah founded the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance in 2006, for which the activist was chosen by the Community Environmental Council as the recipient of the 2011 Environmental Hero Award.
Her autism diagnosis
As a child in the 1960s and 1970s, Daryl Hannah was diagnosed with a borderline form of autism (later confirmed to be Asperger's Syndrome) in an era when autism was not as widely recognized as it is today. Doctors recommended that Hannah be medicated and institutionalized, but her mother refused to part ways with her daughter. Hannah felt isolated due to her autism and insomnia and had been very shy — something that persisted through her adulthood. "Kids bullied me and that just drove me further into myself ... I didn't fit in anywhere," Hannah told The Australian Women's Weekly.
She found refuge in movies and made the move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in show business at the age of 17. Hannah told People Magazine (via TODAY), "Acting for me was about going to the Land of Oz and meeting the Tin Man," adding, "It still is." Even as an adult, she felt uncomfortable appearing in interviews and celebrity events. "I've never been comfortable being the center of attention ... It's always freaked me out," Hannah told People Magazine (via E! News), stating that her reason to refuse promotional talk show interviews for movies wasn't "because I was above it, but because I was terrified."
The actress admitted on Dan Rather's "The Big Interview" (via PR Newswire) that though she has learned to deal with her autism as she grows older, she still struggles with her introversion, saying, "I still am not comfortable. I'm not an extrovert. I'm not, you know, I'm not a natural exhibitionist or anything."
She found peace and comfort with middle age
Even though Daryl Hannah found herself getting offered lesser roles after turning 30 and 40, she discovered that she was becoming increasingly at peace with herself as she grew older. For the most part, Hannah was able to overcome the debilitating insecurities she had when she was younger, partly fuelled by her autism and the ageism faced by actresses in Hollywood, and find her true calling in life: protecting the environment and living a sustainable lifestyle.
Hannah spoke with TODAY about the problems she faced with growing older in Hollywood, saying, "I remember when I was 30 years old, I started hearing I was too old for roles, and I'm talking about roles where you're playing a doctor or a teacher or a mother." She added that since the entertainment industry is "still male-dominated," its notions of marketability are heavily reliant on sexualizing young women, saying, "I think the whole idea of sexualizing girls when they're in their pre-teens on magazines and advertisements, it's just creepy."
Hannah told the Telegraph, "I loved turning 40 and look forward to being 50 and 60 even more. I am still learning and growing and that helps keep you young in outlook... I have such a full life compared with how things used to be." She continued, "I no longer worry about what people think of me ... I'm no longer self-obsessed. I'm more worried about protecting creatures and caring for the environment. Such change is the advantage of the passing years."
She found difficulty in getting work after rejecting Harvey Weinstein's advances
In 2017, Daryl Hannah joined several women from the film industry in exposing producer Harvey Weinstein's atrocities relating to sexual harassment and abuse. The actress detailed her experiences with Weinstein to The New Yorker, alleging that Weinstein repeatedly made advances towards her during the making of Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies, which Weinstein had produced.
On one occasion (per Metro), the disgraced producer showed up at Hannah's hotel room after she ignored his repetitive phone calls, and kept knocking at her door, after which Hannah secretly fled the room through another door and spent the night in her make-up artist's room. On another occasion years later, the producer barged into Hannah's room and asked to feel her breasts, to which the actress swiftly told him: "f*** off, Harvey." The next morning, Hannah found that her Cannes appearance had been canceled.
Hannah believes that it was because she rejected Weinstein's advances that she stopped getting work after "Kill Bill," telling Yahoo, "[Kill Bill] was a big, successful movie, but I never got even a meeting, nothing. I think it was ... maybe tied slightly to the Harvey [Weinstein] thing, because that was part of it. He was telling people I was 'difficult,' because I kicked him out of my room!"
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
She's also been making board games
Every actor has one side hustle or the other to keep themselves occupied when roles aren't coming in as steadily or simply to make some additional pocket money. Jeremy Renner renovates multi-million dollar houses, Jessica Alba makes skin products for babies through her Honest Company, and Steve Carell occasionally mans the cash register at his Marshfield Hills General Store in Massachusetts.
Hannah has a similar hobby-to-side-hustle endeavor going on. From 1995 to 2010, the actress designed four board games — "Love It or Hate It," "LIEbrary," "Famous First Lines" and "Call-It" — the first three of which she created in collaboration with actress and fellow board game enthusiast, Hilary Shepard.
While promoting "Liebrary" on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," the actress talked about her board-gaming hobby, saying, "We always had game nights, it was always like, one of our favorite things to do, is have game nights whenever we're free, and [Liebrary] was always everyone's favorite game to play." In Liebrary, upon picking a card, players are given the title and plot description of a book, and have to "bluff" the first line of the book, with the objective to trick other players into believing that their first line is indeed the correct first line of the assigned book. "This was an old parlor game," Hannah added, "it's been around since the turn of the century."
She's happily married to Neil Young
For Daryl Hannah, it took a few heartbreaks to find her true love. The actress has had a few high-profile relationships through the years, with famous personalities such as environmental lawyer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., actor, Val Kilmer, and musician, Jackson Browne. However, Hannah finally tied the knot in 2018 with musician and fellow environmentalist, Neil Young. While the two were confirmed to have been in a relationship since 2014, speculations arose in 2018 of the couple having secretly married each other, before Young finally confirmed their nuptials later the same year.
According to People Magazine, the two bonded over their love for nature and activism, having led a march against a proposed oil pipeline in Washington, D.C. in 2014. Moreover, Hannah and Young have also embarked on creative endeavors together, with Hannah directing her husband in the 2018 musical film, "Paradox," and directing the making-of documentary of Young's album, "Barn," during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
Young sang praises of his wife's talents in an interview with Rolling Stone, saying, "She's just a natural. She's wanted to do films since she was old enough to wear sneakers ... I mean, she just loves it. She's incredibly talented and connected. She gets moved by the music and gets really involved."
Her ventures behind the camera
Being in a creative profession such as filmmaking allows one to transition into other avenues of work within the same field. Much like other actors who also became directors and producers, Daryl Hannah has her fair share of experience in behind-the-camera duties. The actress had produced and executive produced a handful of short and feature films including 2008's "Vice," starring herself and her "Kill Bill" co-star, Michael Madsen, along with the 2012 documentary, "Greedy Lying Bastards," which explores the climate change misinformation propagated by the oil industry.
While Hannah had directed the companion documentary, "Strip Notes," which followed the actress' research process for her role as a stripper in the 2000 erotic film, "Dancing at the Blue Iguana," the budding filmmaker made her writing and directorial debut with the aforementioned 2018 musical film, "Paradox," and the making-of documentary of Young's album, "Barn."
At the South by Southwest premiere of "Paradox," Hannah said (via Yahoo), "I can't even tell you how many years I told my manager I wanted [to direct] ... I have been working on actual, real scripts and stuff for years, and have things that I've developed over the years that I wanted to make as narrative features, and I never even could get a meeting. I even had production deals, but they were always kind of like vanity production deals, ultimately."
She now leads a much more reserved and eco-friendly lifestyle
While Daryl Hannah continues her activism and advocacy work today, she leads a quieter life with her husband, Neil Young. Additionally, true to her advocacy for a greener earth, she's been focused on perfecting her sustainable lifestyle at home. Hannah has been a vegetarian since the age of 11, citing an experience where she found out that the cows that she was bonding with on a farm were going to be killed and eaten the next day. "That was it: I could no longer disassociate the creature from what was on my plate," the actress told Vegetarian Times.
In 2006, Hannah launched a weekly video blog, "DHLoveLife," where she shared advice and ideas with those looking to lead a green and eco-friendly lifestyle. She lives at a solar-powered farm in Colorado, where she grows her own food, harvests water from a spring, and drives a Chevrolet El Camino that runs on biodiesel. "I've been living in a way that I hope is as harmonious with the environment around me as I can and having the opportunity to come here to learn things, employ them in my own home, and share with others I am so excited," Hannah told ABC.