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| View count: | 21,737 |
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| Comments: | 170 |
| Duration: | 1:00:17 |
| Uploaded: | 2026-06-19 |
| Last sync: | 2026-07-13 01:45 |
Oscar-winner Helen Hunt calls out Hank for a video he made about her 20 years ago. They get into aging and Hollywood, why it’s moving to see people giving a shit, and how to be relentless. Helen also can’t believe how many books Hank hasn’t read — and gives him homework.
Got a question or a comment? You can reach us at humans@hankgreen.com
Find us on social media @humanswithhank
Got a question or a comment? You can reach us at humans@hankgreen.com
Find us on social media @humanswithhank
(38:00) to (40:00)
Helen: three-quarters of the way through the movie, I didn't want it to necessarily be a Judeo-Christian version of praying. It's not about that. It's about wanting something so bad, even if it's not your thing, you know, there's no atheists in foxholes. Whatever that is, I didn't want it to necessarily be a Judeo-Christian version of that. I wanted it to be more inclusive. So, I auditioned a bunch of people, South-East Asian actors, couldn't find the right person. They approached him without even me knowing it, are you willing to audition? Yes, and he, he did it, and he was good in the audition and in the thing.
Hank: He's great.
Helen: But I get that it's weird. I get that it's weird.
Hank: You were talking just now about how you don't have a great relationship with the word 'God'. Would you be willing to talk about that?
Helen: Yeah, tentatively, gently. If I talk about it, I don't want to be poking at peoples' very, very, very precious thing.
Hank: Well, no.
Helen: I'll just say, Anne Lamott, I believe. Do you know her? You must know her. Bird by Bird, do you have that book? Hank!
Hank: What?
Helen: Call me!
Hank: I'm a big old nerd. I read sci-fi.
Helen: You're a writer. You're a writer. Read Bird by Bird.
Hank: Okay.
Helen: It's about writing. I could hand it to you. It's right here. I think she says it's like a bad nickname to her, and she's very Christian, actually, and very devoted to God and recovery. She writes about it. Here's actually the one thing I'm gonna say about this. There are comedians, directors I love that have made work absolutely proving the lack of whatever you want to call it, let's call it 'God' for shorthand.
Hank: Yeah.
Helen: And there are obviously tons of people who say, "Not only is it real, I know what it is and it looks like this white guy, and nothing else will do." Both sides annoy me, honestly. Is there no space for mystery?
Hank: Oh, yeah.
Helen: Can we not say there is one thing we don't know for sure? It's what keeps the whole thing of being alive sort of spicy is we don't know. Well, I've heard you say that you're not a God person. Can't we say we don't know?
(40:00) to (42:00)
Can't there be one thing we just don't know for sure?
Hank: Oh, there's so much that we don't know for sure. When I say that I don't believe in God, what I mean is I don't believe the God as it was pitched to me.
Helen: Amen. No pun intended. Yes. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.
Hank: Yeah. God could be everything from like, the alien that pushes the button on the simulation that started the universe--
Helen: Yes.
Hank: --to like, the thing that exists between two people that is not measurable, but is the most interesting and complex thing in the universe. (?~40:29)
Helen: That's closer to me. Even if you go broader than two people. It is that thing that words can't touch.
Hank: Yeah.
Helen: I don't know what it is. I don't know.
Hank: Right.
Helen: And I don't even know that it is, but I know that I don't know, and I don't think anybody else knows either, and that's exciting.
Hank: Yeah.
Helen: That's like--and then when people use the word 'faith', I think they're saying, "Well, whatever road you choose, you don't get to know."
Hank: Yeah.
Helen: "And maybe that's good."
Hank: I mean, the big thing I believe in is people, but I think that it's so hard to know how to be a person that I like, begrudge no one any tool that allows them to do it well or better.
Helen: Yes, for sure.
Hank: Or to handle the betrayal.
Helen: Right, and so it helps me to say, help. And I look up or out if I can see one leaf or one bit of sky, that helps. Beyond that, I know nothing. I know nothing.
Hank: I don't expect you to know what the universe is made of.
Helen: Okay.
Hank: But I do--
Helen: How big was this crush? Not that big, I guess.
Hank: I like that you think this is a past tense crush. Um. How different is it to act in something that something else has written and is directing to do it yourself?
Helen: Very different. I don't even know if it's acting when you wrote it yourself. I guess it is, but you always are, you know, there is a moment, I do all this work, all this work, I've been working for a year on this freakin' play, and then at the one yard line, I'm going to let it all go.