Mariel Hemingway
The actress who won early acclaim in her teen debut in "Lipstick" and earned an Academy Award nomination for "Manhattan," is now the subject of a new documentary, "Running From Crazy," about her famous family, its tragedies, and her acquisition late in life of the joy of childhood.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
"My house wasn't sane," Mariel told correspondent Mo Rocca. "I didn't feel like I was crazy, but I felt like I lived in crazy. You know, in the land of crazy."
It was also a household where no one talked about depression or mental illness: "Oh God, no. My older sister, Muffet, suffered from mental illness, you know, still suffering today. She's beautiful and quite lovely. But it was a long and hard journey, and she never got help. She never saw a psychiatrist or a psychologist or got therapy or anything, because we didn't do that. Good WASPs didn't do that, you didn't talk about that."
The Hemingways, Mariel said, were like the Kennedys, also touched by horrible tragedies: "We were sort of the other American family that had this horrible curse."
In addition to Ernest, six other members of the Hemingway family died by suicide, including Ernest's own father; Mariel's great-grandfather on her grandmother's side; her great-uncle Lester; her great-aunt Ursula; her uncle; and her sister, Margaux, who died in 1996.
"I was not a wild child," Mariel said. "I think because I watched my sisters be wild children -- they were, like, the crazy girls. Margaux was different from Muffet; she drank a lot, she partied a lot. It just seemed reckless to me and undisciplined. And I played the role of, like, 'I'm gonna be disciplined. I'm gonna do everything my parents tell me and then I might get a little of attention and love from that.'"
Mariel says that Margaux invited her kid sister - who had no acting experience - to play her kid sister, thinking it would help bolster Margaux in what was the model's first big movie.
While Margaux's performance was savaged, Mariel stole the show, even being nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture.
"I got very good notices after the film, which was kind of difficult for my relationship with Margaux," she told Rocca. "She felt resentment towards me for coming in and sort of taking the limelight, which I didn't intentionally do."
Hemingway said the role - a teenage girl sophisticated beyond her years - was sophisticated beyond her years. "I was so unclear about what I was playing," she told Rocca. "I would ask my mother, 'Look at these lines. He mentions scuba dive equipment. What in the world does he mean?' I mean, I'd never had a boyfriend before. It was the last thing that I knew about, you know? I was really the most unsophisticated person, which was the irony of that situation."
Hemingway received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance.
"Bob Fosse didn't want me for the movie," Hemingway said. "He was, like, 'You're not right. You're all-American. You're this, you're that.' And I said, 'No, you have to understand something. I really understand.' 'Cause I'd played the victim my whole life, and I played the martyr at home. I sort of understood not really living the life you wanted to live, but sort of being guided to a life that somebody thought you should live."
Hemingway told Mo Rocca that she is often mistaken for other actresses. "I get Meryl Streep not very often, but I take it whenever I can get it. I get Brooke Shields often; I think that's the eyebrow connection. I get Michelle Pfeiffer; that, I always love. I get Heidi Klum, the model -- I love that because she's way younger than me and looking fabulous at all times. And I get Christie Brinkley. I get very good people. I'm, like, 'Yes! Life is good.'"
Though Hemingway took time off from films to raise two daughters, she made numerous TV appearances, and starred in the short-lived series, "Civil Wars."
"I was a little nervous" about doing the film, Hemingway told Mo Rocca, fearing it could be "a horrible reality show, like watching a train wreck. Oh my God, I don't want that to be the case.
"But when I really thought about it, I thought if my tiny celebrity enables somebody to tell their story, then I've done a good thing. Because I honestly believe - especially after telling the story - that this story is not unique to me. This story is everybody's story. We all have challenges in our families. We all do."
Mo Rocca pointed out that both of Mariel's daughters, Langley and Dree, chose to go by the name Hemingway rather than their father's.
"Yes, they do," said Mariel. "Because Dree said, 'I'm not stupid, Mom!' I gotta love her for that!"
In recent years, Hemingway says she has evolved her ability to grasp the joy of life. "It was such an extraordinary discovery for me," she said, that "you could be in your 40s, 50s, and be completely like a child. I didn't know any of that. It's like I got to re-do my childhood. There's that quote that it's never too late to have a happy childhood. It's really true. If you want to, you can recreate a life that is right for you. And that's what I've done."
For more info::
"Running With Nature: Stepping Into the Life You Were Meant To Live" by Mariel Hemingway and Bobby Williams (Changing Lives Press)
Running With Nature Ranch
"Running From Crazy" (OWN)
"Running From Crazy" on Facebook
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan