Speaking of exercise and muscle, let’s get superficial for a moment. Hunter, in person, appears just as sinewy and strong as she does on TV. But I have to ask: Does she ever fret about how her body looks in nude scenes? Does she work out harder beforehand? These questions dissolve her into giggles, and she rolls back in the restaurant booth, simulating the moves she does with her Pilates instructor Jillian Hessel, and squeals with mock desperation, “More weight, Jillian! Add some springs!”
Joking aside, however, Hunter is much less concerned about how her butt looks than with how life’s big issues are reflected in the flawed woman she now portrays. “Grace has made a lot of errors—some that she’s paid dearly for,” she says. “The struggle of how to forgive one’s self, how to forgive other people, how to ask for forgiveness—these are things I can certainly relate to. That remains an active, volcanic process that we all—that I—go through.
“Here is the central question,” she adds, leaning in conspiratorially. “What are the possibilities of being alive? I think we are all born with an original impulse, and then we attempt to manage it or tamp it down. Grace has cherished and protected this force. That’s why it’s fascinating for me to play her right now in my life. There’s so much more at stake for her.” And, by extension, for Hunter as well.
