Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Actress Jessica Hecht Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry

…The idea of truly listening to each other is such a battle. It takes so long to recognize what it really means, especially in acting. It’s hard to carve out enough space to have real conversations and listen to what’s going on with other people. I think that’s the hardest thing to find time for in our lives, but it’s essential. It’s the making of any work of art — hearing other people’s voices…

I had the pleasure of talking with Jessica Hecht. Jessica is an acclaimed American actress and singer celebrated for her diverse roles across television, film, and theater. Known for her performances as Gretchen Schwartz on “Breaking Bad,” Susan Bunch on “Friends,” Carol on “The Boys,” and Karen on “Special,” Hecht has built a notable career in both mainstream and independent productions. Her extensive Broadway work has also earned her critical recognition, including Tony Award nominations for her roles in “A View from the Bridge” (2010) and “Summer, 1976” (2023).

Hecht’s early life began in Princeton, New Jersey. At the age of three, she moved with her family to Bloomfield, Connecticut, following her parents’ divorce. Her mother later remarried psychiatrist Howard Iger, with whom Hecht and her siblings were raised. Hecht’s educational journey saw her attend Connecticut College for a brief period before she transferred to the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. She graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama.

Throughout her career, Hecht has made numerous television appearances. Her roles include parts in “Dickinson,” “Bored to Death,” “Red Oaks,” “Jessica Jones,” “The Loudest Voice,” and “Succession.” In 2020, she portrayed Sonya Barzel on “The Sinner” and received an Emmy nomination in 2019 for her role in the Netflix series “Special.” Notably, Hecht’s portrayal of Gretchen Schwartz on “Breaking Bad” and Susan Bunch on “Friends” brought her widespread recognition.

In addition to her television work, Hecht has had significant roles in film. She played Amy Burns in the comedy-drama “Dan in Real Life” (2007) alongside Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche. Her other film credits include “Whatever Works,” “Sideways,” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

Hecht’s stage career is equally distinguished. Her Broadway debut was marked by a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in “A View from the Bridge.” She shared the stage with Jim Parsons in “Harvey” (2012) and took on the role of Golde in the 2015 revival of “Fiddler on the Roof.” In 2017, she appeared in “The Price” with Mark Ruffalo. Her performance in “Admissions” at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater earned her the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress in 2018. In 2023, she received another Tony nomination for her role in “Summer, 1976.”

Beyond her acting, Hecht co-founded The Campfire Project in 2017 with producer Jenny Gersten. This theater-based wellness initiative creates plays in refugee camps, aiming to bring the therapeutic power of the arts to displaced communities.

Hecht’s work also extends to teaching, where she engages with aspiring actors. One notable story involves Carl Isidore, a former doorman with a passion for acting whom Hecht helped gain a scholarship to the HB Playwrights acting school.

Currently, Hecht is involved in several projects, including the play “Eureka Day” at the Manhattan Theatre Club, a comedic yet poignant exploration of a viral outbreak in a liberal school. She also completed filming “Eleanor the Great,” directed by Scarlett Johansson, where she stars alongside June Squibb in a dramedy about family and identity.

Hecht’s approach to her craft and her advocacy for listening and understanding in both art and life continue to shape her contributions to the entertainment industry. Through The Campfire Project, she remains committed to using the arts as a means of connection and healing for refugees and asylum seekers worldwide.

Yitzi: Jessica, it’s a delight and an honor to meet you. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share with us the story of your childhood and how you grew up?

Jessica: Yeah, I grew up in Connecticut, in sort of rural suburbia, in this town called Bloomfield, which was a very integrated, small town with a really diverse population. My stepfather was a psychiatrist at a private psychiatric hospital nearby in Hartford, and my mother was a social worker there. I have a family of four — a conjoined family. It’s my stepfather’s two children and me and my sister, and we’re all very close. Most of my family is in mental health professions, except for me. I guess I am sort of in my own mental health field. I went to public school and was raised in a very emotionally connected household where people talked about their feelings a lot. Then I went to NYU, and that’s where I started acting.

Yitzi: Amazing. We’d love to hear about the next chapter of that story. What led you to this very successful career as an actress? What can you tell us about your first break? How did that develop?

Jessica: Oh, yeah. Well, I really wanted to study acting. I didn’t quite know what I was going to do with it, but from a young age, I loved studying any art form. I loved dance classes, art classes — even though I’m not a great artist, I just loved the engagement of taking classes. Before I went to NYU, I spent a year at Connecticut College and started to study with this brilliant actor in his late eighties named Morris Carnovsky. He was part of the Group Theatre, which was foundational in American acting, with figures like Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler who made acting seem more natural. Morris told me to leave the small school and go to NYU.

So, I started at NYU, and quite soon after I graduated, I got my first big break with a play called The Heidi Chronicles. It was written by Wendy Wasserstein, who won the Pulitzer Prize for it. She wrote extensively about women and the journey of being an American woman striving for satisfaction. I went on the national tour of the play and met incredible actors like Amy Irving and Amy Ryan, and it was directed by the great theater director Dan Sullivan. This experience started me on the path to wanting to be part of the New York theater community above all else.

That was my first big job, and then I had a lot of ups and downs. It’s so nonlinear. Last night, I was doing a Q&A with director Susan Seidelman, who directed films of the late 80s and 90s, and we talked about her successes in her 30s. My career has been more of a journeyman’s career where I’ve been incredibly lucky to keep working for a long time. Some people might identify TV shows like Breaking Bad or Friends as great highs. I was fortunate to be in the first episode of Friends and the second episode of Breaking Bad, starting with recurring characters pivotal to the plots. It was just incredibly lucky. I think about it often — you could have been in season four and had a cool character, but people identify me with those shows because I was there from the onset, before anybody got famous, which is also kind of delicious.

Yitzi: You probably have some amazing stories from all the varied parts of your career and working on so many projects. Can you share one or two of your favorite memories, favorite stories, or anecdotes from your professional life?

Jessica: Well, I’ll tell you two stories that really capture the nuts and bolts of getting a great job. One of my true honors as an actor was working with Laurie Metcalf, an incredible stage actress. I get very nervous auditioning. People think that actors who work a lot just walk in and get jobs. Now, I get jobs without auditioning, but back then, I really had to go through a lot.

So, I got a call to read for a big part in a Neil Simon play. My family is from the same part of the Bronx as he is, and my mother grew up on the same block as the producer. I went in feeling very authentic, and people were laughing. Neil Simon was sitting in the back, watching me. After the reading, they said I could step out and wait. Eventually, they came out and said I did well, but Neil wasn’t sure about my voice because he couldn’t hear me clearly when I introduced myself. They said he was fixated on the way I presented myself and thought I was mumbling.

A week later, they called me back for another audition and told me to be very clear when introducing myself and starting the lines. I dressed in the same outfit and went in, super nervous. I said, “Hey, I’m Jessica. Don’t you remember? We talked about my mother last time growing up in the Bronx.” He didn’t remember. I did the audition very clearly, and they told me to wait. Later, my agents called and said he was still fixated on my voice and couldn’t hear me properly. So, they asked me to come to his house on Park Avenue.

At his magnificent apartment, I did the scene again. The casting director stood in the back, raising his thumb to ensure I was loud enough. I ended up screaming, focusing on volume rather than the quality of my acting. Someone even started knocking on the door, asking what was going on. After the audition, Neil Simon asked, “So, Jessica, you said you’re from the Bronx?” I confirmed, and he said, “People from the Bronx don’t whisper.” That was the end of the audition, and I left, completely mystified. I ended up getting the part, but we sadly closed a week after opening.

That story captures the minutiae of acting that people might not realize. It’s not the most glamorous story, but it shows the lengths we go to in this profession. If you have more questions, I’ll pull out another story for you.

Yitzi: It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story of a humorous mistake that you made when you were first starting and the lesson you learned from it?

Jessica: Yeah, when I was first starting out, I think my biggest lesson came from trying too hard to get everyone to like me. My mother once told me she was proud and amazed by my success but also pointed out that I was very invested in people’s impressions of me. She wished she had told me earlier that not everyone is going to like you. It’s a basic tenet of life.

Early on, I tried to engage with people in a way that ensured they weren’t offended by me. Some of my most transformative experiences have come from those moments where I really needed to stand up for myself. There have been times when I’ve written out exactly what I wanted to say to someone and practiced it over and over again.

One memorable time was when I had a conflict with someone I was working with. This person was extremely critical and had a horrible habit of telling other actors how to act, which is a huge taboo. I wrote out a whole monologue where I said, “Do not ever open your mouth in that manner to me or anyone else in this room ever again. Do not interrupt. I want to tell you something. Do not think you have any authority.” I memorized this speech perfectly, and when I finally delivered it, it was so liberating.

I learned that the only way for me to function in a crisis is to be prepared for it. Preparedness is everything. It showed me that we all have different parts of ourselves that we can access, but it requires practice. We tend to navigate our lives in a certain way that has worked for us, but there are other parts of us that we don’t exercise enough. For me, that meant accessing a less soft side of myself. It was a great exercise in personal development.

Yitzi: We love hearing stories where someone who is a little further ahead opens a door, creates an opportunity, and that changes someone’s life. It changes their trajectory because of that kindness they didn’t have to extend. Do you have a story like that?

Jessica: Well, I teach, so I engage with a lot of people of all ages, which is wonderful. I also have a close relationship with my doorman. My family often laughs about my interactions with various doormen because I tend to get involved with them. One time, we had a doorman who would hide in the lobby and jump out to scare me. I’m extremely sensitive to being scared, so it was quite the ordeal. But that’s just a humorous side note.

A more profound experience was with another doorman named Carl Isidore, a young man from Haiti who worked hard to get here. He had a difficult background but found solace in poetry and literature. He started memorizing poems and monologues, hoping to one day perform them.

One hot day in New York, about five years ago, I told Carl I’d love to hear one of his monologues. He was just about to go on his lunch break, so I invited him up to my apartment. Carl, in his doorman’s uniform, sat down and performed a monologue from August Wilson’s Fences that was so captivating. I recorded it on my cell phone.

Impressed, I sent the recording to the head of my acting school, the late Mark Blum. Mark, a magnificent actor, was moved by Carl’s performance and offered him a full scholarship to the HB Playwrights acting school. Carl left his doorman job and enrolled in the school.

Unfortunately, the conflict in Haiti worsened, and Carl, who was sending money home while attending school, suffered from exhaustion. He went back to Haiti to help his mother and got caught there during the conflict. He just recently got his passport back and will be returning to the U.S. to resume his work.

Carl Isidore is a magnificent actor and one day, I believe he will be either a great actor or a great mentor to someone else.

Yitzi: You have such impressive work. Can you share with our readers the exciting projects you’re working on now and what you hope to be working on in the near future?

Jessica: Yeah, well, I’m doing a play called Eureka Day at the Manhattan Theatre Club on Broadway this fall. It’s about a very woke school in Marin County where a viral outbreak occurs, not COVID, and it exposes a thread of anti-vaxxers within the school. It’s a delicious, hysterically funny, and painfully sad story about liberal parents.

I just finished a film with Scarlett Johansson, who directed it — her directing debut. It’s based on a somewhat true story about a 94-year-old woman, played by the great actress June Squibb, who plays my mother. I play her daughter. June Squibb’s character comes home to New York to live with me after her best friend dies and pretends to be a Holocaust survivor to get into the grief group at the Jewish Community Center. The story revolves around this charade, the beautiful family struggle, and the friendships my mother develops in her lonely eccentricity There are several people who are survivors and then three other incredible actors. It’s called Eleanor the Great. Scarlett did an amazing job.

Yitzi: Most recently, you were in Tokyo Vice. How would you compare and contrast your personal character, Jessica, with the character you play, Willa?

Jessica: Oh, that’s a good one. I think I’m more accepting. I’m a very accepting mom, I think. For the most part, I feel a great sense of allegiance to my family, just like that character did. I’m very close to the guy who played my husband in that, Danny Burstein. We’ve played husband and wife before.

I connect with the feeling of wanting my family to be okay and having peace of mind when my kids and husband are okay. But I don’t think I’m quite as tough. Maybe I am. I don’t know. I don’t think I’m quite as tough on my kids as Willa was on Jake. Maybe if my own kids were living that far away, I would be.

I loved that series, and I thought Ansel was incredible. I also have a son that age who’s very handsome, so I guess that is another similarity. And a beautiful daughter. I think those are my other similarities.

Yitzi: You’re also in Succession. How are you similar or different from Michelle?

Jessica: I think I’m kind of silly and playful like that character was. Yeah, that part wasn’t that developed, so it’s harder to say. But I have a curiosity about people, and that curiosity comes with a kind of analysis of people as I’m talking to them, which she had as well.

Yitzi: So I think you’re most famous for Breaking Bad. Why do you think that series was so popular? And, second question, what lessons can we take from the themes and motifs of Breaking Bad?

Jessica: Oh, I think that show was so popular because we’re all searching for a way to look at our own complexity and how we could be driven to a quality of life and desperation that seems impossible at first glance. The motif is about losing yourself for honorable reasons. It’s funny how many people started out seeing my character as a jilted girlfriend trying so hard to help Walt. By the end, the same thing happened with the honest characters, all the female characters, and any character besides Walt — they were considered morally flawed, while Walt was seen as virtuous. It’s absurd.

If you just look at the storyline, everyone was acting as honorably as they could. This anti-hero took all our sympathy because of his incredible complexity. But it’s funny how characters around Walt were seen as morally flawed while he was seen as heroic. This happens in real life too. Take Sam Bankman-Fried, for instance. He seemed to start out doing something altruistic but then became tainted in his activities, similar to Walt.

But why don’t we view real-life anti-heroes with the same complexity? Why do we judge them more harshly? It’s painful to think about his drug involvement, but why do we have so much empathy for a character like Walt and not for real people? Does that make sense?

I had this great play I did last year, which was beautifully written. The character I played seemed casual at first. You wouldn’t initially think she had old soul wisdom. But then, as she talks, she reveals something she figured out about her child and herself at an earlier stage in life. She says, “Yeah, I guess I figured out of course we’re not only one thing, that we’re all just, you know…”

You realize that this is a benchmark of real emotional sophistication. It’s something I hope my children hold onto — that no one is just one thing. When do we all learn that? You can’t just tell someone; they have to see it for themselves. My kids are 23 and 24 now, and they’re just starting to see that complexity, which I think is so valuable as humans.

Yitzi: Okay, so this is our signature question, and then we’ll wrap up. You’ve been blessed with a lot of success. Can you share with our readers five things you need to create a successful career in entertainment?

Jessica:

1. The first one would be the ability to work through rejection fairly quickly.
2. The second thing would be a sense of community.
3. The third thing would be a real interest in the arts.
4. The fourth thing would be to do something else you’re truly passionate about.
5. And the fifth thing would be the ability to take care of yourself physically and mentally.

Yitzi: Jessica, you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be?

Jessica: Oh, wow. I think my idea, I don’t know if it’s something that would spawn a movement, but it’s important. The idea of truly listening to each other is such a battle. It takes so long to recognize what it really means, especially in acting. It’s hard to carve out enough space to have real conversations and listen to what’s going on with other people. I think that’s the hardest thing to find time for in our lives, but it’s essential. It’s the making of any work of art — hearing other people’s voices.

Yitzi: And how can our readers continue to follow your work? How can they watch your next film? How can they support you in any way?

Jessica: I run this organization called the Campfire Project, which does arts-based wellness projects with refugees and asylum seekers around the world. So, if people want to help, they can have a heart for those seeking asylum. It’s called the Campfire Project, and we go to refugee camps all around the world.

Yitzi: That’s wonderful. Jessica, it’s an honor to meet you. I wish you continued success and blessings. And I hope we can do this again next year.

Jessica: Yes, that would be great.