10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Cast Of What Women Want

What Women Want is a romantic fantasy/comedy about a man who can read the minds of women. And for a relatively simple romantic comedy, What Women Want has a bonafide all-star cast. Some were famous at the time, some didn’t become famous until much later. But either way, the cast is amazing, and so are their stories.

Actors are so much more than what we see on screen. They have amazing lives and amazing stories, some of which aren’t particularly well known. Well we’re here to educate.

These are ten things you didn’t know about the cast of What Women Want.

10 Mel Gibson Has Ten Siblings

Mel Gibson comes from a very large family. Born on January 3, 1956, Gibson was actually the sixth of the Gibsons’ eleven children. His parents were Anne Patricia and Hutton Gibson. Anne was Irish-born and unfortunately passed away in 1990. His father Hutton led quite an extravagant life, which included time in World War II, writing on sedevacantism, and becoming a Jeopardy! grand champion in 1968. Hutton is obviously doing something right, as he is still alive at 101 years old!

9 Helen Hunt Comes From A Family Of Entertainers

Helen Hunt definitely carried om the family tradition of performing and pursuing art. Her mother Jane was a photographer. Her father, Gordon Hunt, was a director and acting coach. He has directed a ton of animated shows and movies as well as video games, having worked as a voice director on the likes on God of War II & III and the Uncharted series. Her grandmother was also a voice coach and her uncle, Peter Hunt, was also a director. He worked on Baywatch and Touched by an Angel, among other things.

8 Marisa Tomei Doesn’t Want To Be Married Or Have Kids

Marisa Tomei has been a prominent actress since 1987 when she starred as Maggie Lauten on A Different World. Things got even better for her five years later when she won the Academy Award for 1992’s My Cousin Vinny. But despite this long-time presence, Tomei has remained quite private about her personal life. In 2009, she told E! News, “I’m not that big a fan of marriage as an institution, and I don’t know why women need to have children to be seen as complete human beings.”

7 Ashley Johnson’s Father Was The Captain Of An Exploration Ship

We didn’t know Ashley Johnson was born in 1852! We kid, but seriously, Ashley Johnson’s father was the captain of an exploration ship. That sounds really cool, but unfortunately, it came with a bit of trouble in terms of instability. Ashley was born in Camarillo, California, a town of about 70,000 in Ventura County.

However, she was forced to move a lot due to her father’s job, and she moved to Franklin, Michigan when she was just nine days old. Granted, she obviously doesn’t remember the stress of the move, but still…

6 Alan Alda Contracted Polio

Alan Alda is widely known as Hawkeye from the seminal comedy/drama/war series M*A*S*H. But long before that, he was just another kid…with polio. Yep, Alan contracted the infectious disease when he was just seven years old (this would have been in 1943). This was bad news for the young child. And not just because he had polio. He was actually subjected to a painful treatment regimen that saw his parents applying hot towels to his skin and forcefully pulling on his limbs to stretch his muscles.

5 Mark Feuerstein Was A State Wrestling Champion

Feuerstein played Morgan Farwell in What Women Want, but you probably know him better from his roles in The West Wing (Clifford Calley) and Royal Pains (Dr. Hank Lawson). But before that, Mark was a high school wrestling champion. In fact, he was so good at the sport that he won a state championship while still in high school! Obviously that skill didn’t translate to his acting roles, but hey, it certainly makes for cool bragging rights! Not too many people can say that they’re a state wrestling champion.

4 Judy Greer’s Mother Is A Rejected Nun

Judy Greer is a fantastic character actress, having starred in the likes of Arrested Development, the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy, and Ant-Man and the Wasp. It is a far cry from her mother’s vocation as a nun. Well, an ex-nun. Her mother, Mollie Ann, actually served as a nun for eight years before getting kicked out for lewd behavior.

This “lewd behavior?” Owning and wearing a red bathing suit. Hey, that was scandalous stuff back in the day! Mollie Ann then left the convent and became a hospital administrator.

3 Sarah Paulson Had Melanoma

Sarah Paulson had melanoma when she was 25 years old. The story goes that she and her then-fiance were traveling to Puerto Rico when her partner found a funny-looking mole on her back. Sarah went to see a dermatologist, who performed a biopsy and discovered that it was cancerous. Luckily, the cancer hadn’t spread beyond her skin, and Sarah quickly had the “mole” removed. She also claims that she was about six months away from “disaster,” as that is when the cancer likely would have spread beyond the skin.

2 Lauren Holly’s Mother Is An Art Historian

Lauren Holly is perhaps best known as Mary Swanson from Dumb and Dumber. And her vocation is absolutely nothing like her mother’s, who is quite an esteemed art historian. Her mother, Michael Ann Holly, was the Director of Research and Academic Program at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, an art museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She also earned her doctorate from Cornell and has received grants from the likes of the Mellon and Rockefeller Foundations.

1 Bette Midler Is One Award Away From The EGOT

The EGOT distinction (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) is one of the most esteemed in the entertainment industry. And Bette Midler is just one Oscar away from performing the feat. Midler has actually won three Grammy awards, three Emmy awards, and one Tony award (which she won in 2017 for Hello, Dolly!). Unfortunately, the Oscar has remained out of her reach, although she has been nominated twice (for The Rose in 1980 and For the Boys in 1992). That said, she has won four Golden Globes, so that has to count for something, right?

NEXT: 10 Books To Read If You Love Game Of Thrones

About The Author

Nathan Sharp
(852 Articles Published)

Nathan Sharp is a writer from outside Toronto, Ontario. He has a love of movies and television, having enjoyed them for more than twenty years. His preferences include drama, action, and horror, with the former being a particular point of interest and fascination.

He also has a love of video games, particularly those of Rockstar.

Whether it be about film, television, or video games, Nathan loves a good discussion and has written hundreds of articles for Screen Rant.

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