Daryl Hannah Was an Icon
Looking over Daryl Hannah’s filmography, it’s surprisingly impressive. She rose to prominence in the early 80s and then was kind of forgotten about.
She’s worked with top directors like Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone and co-starred alongside Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas and more.
Daryl Hannah in Splash
Throughout the '80s Daryl Hannah was the IT girl who appeared in top grossing movies, in fashion ads, and on the walls of teenage boys across America.
She starred in everything from family comedies to neo-noir science fiction pieces. Women wanted to be her and men wanted to be with her, but then she disappeared. After almost two decades of taking time off from her career, she showed up in Kill Bill films, but that’s it. So what happened to Daryl Hannah? Did she go crazy and move under a bridge? Did she start a pottery studio in Santa Fe? Or has she just been living her life?
Hannah Got Arrested? Say What and Why?
Yes, Hannah did. In 2012, she protested the keystone pipeline and wouldn't give up. The result was her in handcuffs.
Hannah went from being the envy of the world to saving it. In the past decade or so, Hannah has become an environmental activist. She founded a website called DH Love Life aimed at educating people about the environment, and spreading news about environmental achievements. She's also worked with various groups to support renewable energy and recycling, animal conservation, and reducing greenhouse gases.
Does Daryl Hannah Really Have Autism?
There have been a lot of rumors floating around about Hannah suffering from autism. Thankfully, she has been very open about her challenges.
This is something that has to be hard to admit, especially for a sex symbol. Hannah told People Magazine in 2013 that as a child she was diagnosed with autism, but she never told producers about it because she was afraid of the news affecting her career. "I've never been comfortable being the center of attention. It's always freaked me out," she said.
Daryl Hannah's Dog Killed Her Relationship with JFK Jr.
A friend to JFK Jr. told InStyle, “John just found Daryl so self-absorbed.” Apparently, while Jackie was in the hospital in New York, just days ahead of her death in 1994, John was in L.A. for the funeral of Hannah’s dog. Hannah got angry with John because he hadn’t chosen a more elaborate box for the dog’s ashes.
That just infuriated him. Then, after Jackie died, Daryl had another dog that was sick and John was up in Martha's Vineyard and Daryl was on the phone talking about her dog for hours. He felt badly that she kept talking about her dog when his mom had just died. Rumor has it that he couldn't take it anymore.
Daryl Hannah Once Offended Trump, Then He Claimed She Smells
In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Daryl offended Trump by saying she didn't understand why people were comparing her real estate mogul step-father, Jerrold Wexler, to Trump. She said, “He was soft-spoken, modest; he avoided publicity. The only reason to compare him to Donald Trump is that he was successful in real estate - and Donald Trump isn’t even successful in real estate anymore!”
Trump responded by saying, “I'd pit my real-estate record against Wexler’s any day.” Then he added injury to insult by saying: “The big question is: What does John Jr., see in Daryl, if anything. I have seen her on many occasions, and she is, quite simply, a ‘six’ - and badly in need of a shower or a bath. I see her a lot at Knicks games, and, I tell you, she doesn’t even understand basketball.”
It Took 47 Years for Her to Overcome Her Shyness
In 2007, Hannah discussed her crippling shyness with The Telegraph and how it took getting to middle age to actually feel comfortable in her own skin.
"I hated being young. Everyone says how wonderful it is to be a young person. That is far from the case for many people, but they dare not say it at the time. Aging is great. Maturity has brought me peace of mind. When I look back, I could have saved myself so much anxiety. Remember that kids, you just have to make it to your 40s, and you'll feel pretty good about yourself."
She Almost Died in a Plane Crash
In 2014, the world almost lost Hannah to a freak accident while she was on her way to Austria to visit a solar energy facility. She was already afraid of flying, but when her private jet lost cabin pressure mid-flight, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing, she had a horrific panic attack.
She told a German newspaper she was "breathless" during the accident, saying, "I'm already scared enough of flying, when suddenly the oxygen masks appeared. Luckily nothing happened."
Daryl's Been Making Board Games
In 2017, she published her second board game, Liebrary, a literary version of Balderdash, through the indie game company SimplyFun.
The company's CEO Gail DeGiulio had been trying to publish the game for a decade but never had the safety net to publish it correctly. She shared, "I met Daryl about 10 years ago. She brought Liebrary in, and I thought it was a wonderful game. At the time, the company I was with was not able to publish it." The duo got together and made it happen!
Daryl Was Arrested Again in Front of the White House
In 2013 Daryl Hannah continued her rebellious streak when she was arrested outside the White House while protesting the construction of the Keystone Pipeline on the same day she was meant to appear on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News.
Hannah bailed herself out of jail and had a contentious interview with Sean Hannity. While talking, Hannity said he doesn't believe in global warming, and Hannah was shocked.
Daryl Is an Official Enemy of Whalers
Hannah's moment as a mermaid in "Splash" (1984) may have fueled her desire to keep the oceans clean and sea life thriving. She once worked with a 45-member crew working to curb whale hunting. And sometimes she and her crew had some violent clashes with Japanese whalers in harsh Antarctic waters.
She hopes the whaling industry will come to an end and has pled conservationists and governments to enforce anti-whaling laws.
Did Uma Thurman and Daryl Really Clash on the Set of Kill Bill?
Yes, Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah reportedly didn't get along on the set of "Kill Bill." The feud went so far that they refused to do any promotion for the movie together.
Thankfully, this worked in the movie’s favor, because it meant that the Bride and Elle’s rivalry was a real thing.
Jackson brown and Daryl Hannah's Relationship Ended in Violence
Hannah met the musician, 12 years her senior, as a teen when he visited Chicago for a concert. The two were together for 10 years before the romance ended in 1992 following a violent confrontation in their Santa Monica home.
The fight left Hannah with a broken finger, black eye and swollen lip. Browne denied hurting her, and she did not press charges. She said in 1998 that the relationship marked a pattern. "In men I like a certain darkness," she told Notorious. "[But] I would love to just have someone with no problems, who's easy."
She Had a Thing for Val Kilmer
Kilmer and Hannah started dating in 2001 after starring in "In God We Trust" together. The two were seen around California for a few months before breaking up the next year.
In his memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry, Kilmer, 60, fondly recalled the time the two spent together. “Lord knows I’ve suffered heartache. But Daryl was by far the most painful of all,” wrote Kilmer.
Daryl Accused Weinstein of Horrifying Acts
Hannah recounted two nights when Weinstein allegedly started pounding on her hotel room door so loudly that she had to escape out of a back entrance.
He tried again another evening, and thankfully her makeup artist was able to help her barricade her door with a piece of furniture. She believes that she saw a dip in her career after she denied Weinstein what he wanted.
Daryl Got Married to an Older Man
Hannah posted a cryptic image to her Instagram account following her top-secret marriage to Neil Young in 2018. She captioned the picture of an owl: “Someone’s watching over us … love and only love.”
Young and Hannah had reportedly been dating since 2014, when Young filed for divorce from Pegi Young, his wife of 36 years. On the media scrutiny surrounding his relationship with Hannah, Young said: “We didn’t pay any attention to that. It doesn’t matter. We don’t care, because they don’t know what they’re talking about. And if they do know what they’re talking about, we still don’t care, but we’re happy for them. It doesn’t matter. What matters is us, not the press.”
Disney+ Suffered an Epic Fail with Hannah's Bum
In 2021, Disney+ suffered an unfortunate blunder when they tried to censor Splash.
In the scene where they first meet as adults, Hannah's character is completely naked and her bum is visible after she kisses Tom Hank's character on the lips then runs into the sea. It appears the streaming platform tried to make the moment a bit more family-friendly by editing Daryl's bum out with CGI. Their effort failed miserably, as fans spotted it straight away.
How Insomnia Helped Lead Hannah to Acting
Daryl Hannah was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Susan Jeanne (Metzger), a producer and former schoolteacher, and Donald Christian Hannah, a tugboat and barge company owner. Her parents divorced and her mother then married businessman Jerrold Wexler, brother of cinematographer Haskell Wexler.
Hannah grew up with siblings Don and Page Hannah and half-sister Tanya Wexler, in Long Grove, Illinois. Daryl Hannah became interested in movies at a young age, partly due to insomnia.
Hannah Chained Herself to a Walnut Tree for Three Weeks
On June 13, 2006, Hannah was arrested, along with actor Taran Noah Smith, for her involvement with over 350 farmers, their families and supporters, confronting authorities trying to bulldoze the largest urban farm in the U.S., located in South Central Los Angeles.
She chained herself to a walnut tree at the South Central Farm for three weeks to protest against the farmers’ eviction by the property’s new owner, Ralph Horowitz.
She Got Herself a Prosthetic Finger
Daryl Hannah lost the tip of her left index finger in a childhood accident and sometimes wears a prosthetic to mask it.
She told The Sunday Times of South Africa that she got it stuck in a pulley in a well at her grandma's house when she was little. Ow. She sometimes wears a prosthetic finger in her movies. Hannah appears to wear it far more than not because it's extremely difficult to find a photo of it visible.
In 2021, Daryl Hannah Is Still Serious About Conservation
She told High Times recently, "When I was ten years old, my uncle, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, told me all about nuclear power. I was shocked, horrified and appalled. I became a vegetarian around that time."
Hannah continued, "As I got older, my concerns grew about air, water and natural-resource protection. I began to see humanitarian and environmental concerns as one and the same."
She's an Overbearing Mother in Her Latest Role
The Now is an upcoming American comedy series, directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. It stars Dave Franco, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Daryl Hannah and Jimmy Tatro which will debut on The Roku Channel.
It was going to debut in 2020 on Quibi, but it moved to The Roku Channel due to Quibi's shutdown in December 2020. Daryl will play an overbearing mother and we can't wait to see her in action!