Actress and political activist Daryl Hannah has struggled with autism her entire life and admits she has “wasted so much time scared, self-conscious and insecure.”
The 52-year-old revealed, “I’ve never been comfortable being the center of attention. It’s always freaked me out and resulted in “debilitating shyness.”
Thankfully she has made considerable strides in the ensuing years. Daryl said candidly, “I’m a grown up now. I’ve learned a couple of things that really would’ve made my life easier if I’d known them 20 years ago.”
Hannah concealed her autism when she first started getting acting parts during her teenage years. Without telling producers the real reason why, she refused to do promo interviews or hit the talk show circuit. She feared that if she revealed her Asperger’s, she would have been blacklisted in Hollywood.
Her first film was ‘The Fury’ in 1978. Four decades and 75 films later, Daryl’s box office hits include ‘Splash,’ ‘Blade Runner,’ ‘Roxanne,’ ‘Wall Street,’ ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Steel Magnolias.’
Gone are the days when she was “terrified” to tell people she was autistic. The strict vegan has reached a point where she is quietly able to manage her symptoms. At this point she has come to realize that “life is too short to stress the small things anymore.”
On the activist front, DH has participated in a number of protests against the Keystone oil pipeline — allowing herself to be handcuffed and arrested during sit-in demonstrations across the country.
She dated the late John F. Kennedy Jr. on and off from 1989 to 1994, and lived with him in her Upper West Side apartment. Not long after they split JFK Jr. married Carolyn Bessette. They died in a plane crash in 1999.
Photo: WENN