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  • Mariel Hemingway Talks Family Suicide Legacy

    Mariel Hemingway starred in Woody Allen’s Manhattan in 1979. But it is her famous surname that always precedes her.

    Mariel Hemingway was born into the family of legendary author Ernest Hemingway, author of such classics as:
    The Sun Also Rises (1926)
    A Farewell to Arms (1929)
    For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
    The Old Man and the Sea (1951)

    Mariel’s grandfather Ernest Hemingway is also famous for committing suicide with a shotgun in 1961. Mariel Hemingway also lost her supermodel sister Margaux to suicide in 1996. In all seven of her family members have taken their own lives.

    Now Mariel Hemingway is speaking out about this family curse in a book called Out Came the Sun.

    Her publisher describes the book:

    “She opens her eyes. The room is dark. She hears yelling, smashed plates, and wishes it was all a terrible dream. But it isn’t. This is what it was like growing up as a Hemingway. In this deeply moving, searingly honest new memoir, actress and mental health icon Mariel Hemingway shares in candid detail the story of her troubled childhood in a famous family haunted by depression, alcoholism, illness, and suicide.

    “Born just a few months after her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, shot himself, it was Mariel’s mission as a girl to escape the desperate cycles of severe mental health issues that had plagued generations of her family. Surrounded by a family tortured by alcoholism (both parents), depression (her sister Margaux), suicide (her grandfather and four other members of her family), schizophrenia (her sister Muffet), and cancer (mother), it was all the young Mariel could do to keep her head.”

    Perhaps the “keep her head” comment was not thought out well. Ernest Hemingway blew his brains out.

    Nonetheless, Mariel Hemingway tackles the topics of depression and suicide, as well as other family demons head-on. She writes.

    “I am a Hemingway, and to me, that means that I have a ticket to understanding a world of darkness, of courage, of sadness, of excitement, and — at times — of complete lunacy. And yet, other people with other names feel these things too. It may just be that they don’t have an American myth to which they can connect themselves.”

  • Mariel Hemingway Talks Mental Health and Suicide

    Mariel Hemingway talked about both mental health and suicide–her family’s troubled heritage–during an interview on Key West this weekend. She spoke from a desk that once belonged to her famous grandfather, Ernest Hemingway. In Key West headlining the Key West Film Festival, Hemingway screened a documentary about her own life. Called Running from Crazy, it highlights the issues that have plagued her family for generations.

    Running from Crazy is directed by Barbara Kopple. It explores Mariel Hemingway’s attempts at outrunning her family’s troubles.

    “Whenever it’s shown, there’s always one person in the audience, or maybe two or three, who so resonate with the story as their own,” Hemingway says. “And that’s what this film is about — to bring this out of the darkness, to shed light where people don’t want to look in the dark corners of everybody’s lives, and make it not so scary.”

    She hopes to see the film used for educational purposes in high schools, colleges and rehab facilities to help bring people out of the dark. She believes if it can spark conversations, it can spark healing, too.

    Mariel Hemingway suffers from depression. Sister Margaux Hemingway took her own life, as did her famous grandfather, Ernest Hemingway. She is no stranger to the demons that those with mental health fight.

    At a book signing on Key West–sitting at her late grandfather, Ernest Hemingway’s, desk, she recognized his creativity despite his illness. The Nobel Prize Winner was only 61 years old when he committed suicide back in 1961.

    “There’s such a history with my grandfather and Key West, so sharing the film here, in a place where he’s so beloved, is wonderful,” Mariel Hemingway said.

    Hopefully Running from Crazy will fulfill Mariel Hemingway’s need to help others who battle some of the demons she has fought. If her wish to help even a handful of people who suffer from mental illness or thoughts of suicide is granted, then she will have accomplished a huge goal. If in the meantime Running from Crazy wins an award or two–then that’s a definite bonus, too.

    Image via Wikimedia

  • Mariel Hemingway “Running from Crazy”

    Mariel Hemingway “Running from Crazy”

    Mariel Hemingway was born into stardom. Her grandfather was the famous Ernest Hemingway, known for his literary brilliance, and she was nominated for an Oscar at only 16-years-old for her role in Woody Allan’s, “Manhattan”. However, her smile was not always one of happiness, but a cover-up for the pain and depression.

    Hemingway opens up about her battles in a documentary titled, “Running from Crazy”, and the suicides that have haunted her family. In a recent interview with Mo Rocca, she lists the lengthy list of family members that chose to take their own lives. “Ernest’s father [Clarence] committed suicide; my grandfather, Ernest, committed suicide. My great-grandfather on my grandmother’s side. My great-uncle Leicester. My great-aunt Ursula. And my uncle [Gregory]. And then there is my sister,” she said.

    She also described her home life and what it was like to live as a Hemingway. Her parents relationship was all but normal and the constant fighting had a tremendous impact on her. “I spent a lot of time outside hiking because my house wasn’t sane,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was crazy, but I felt like I lived in crazy. You know, in the land of crazy.”

    When she did remain home for the altercations, she described it as “nastiness”. “You know, they’d have one glass of wine and things were kind of happy. They were actually having a regular conversation. But after a couple glasses of wine, the alcohol kicked in. Nastiness would happen.”

    The documentary also discusses her sisters Margaux and Muffet. Margaux overdosed at the age of 41 and Muffet is receiving psychiatric care after experiencing multiple psychotic breaks. Hemingway says she always thought her turn would come.

    “You know what? I can honestly tell you for the first time in my life, the last four years, I do not think that some secret, dark night’s gonna come and, like, pounce on me, which I used to. For many, many years I thought, it’s my turn,” she said.

    Hemingway admits that after all her struggles she is finally happy and has found who she is. “There’s that quote that it’s never too late to have a happy childhood,” Mariel said. “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.”

    “Running from Crazy” opens in select theaters on November 1.

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    Image via Twitter

  • Mariel Hemingway Talks About Family’s Grim Tradition

    Mariel Hemingway likely could have relied on her very famous last name for some limelight, at least when she was younger; as the granddaughter of writer Ernest, she was part of a family which was well respected and well known.

    But the 51-year old actress paved her own path to success, and earned herself an Oscar nom at the tender age of 16. Her role in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” was, she admits, more sophisticated than she’d bargained for.

    “She was sophisticated beyond my years,” she said of the character. “I was so unclear about what I was playing.”

    Hemingway found her way around the character, however, and earned critical acclaim for the performance. Unfortunately, her scene-stealing–though completely unconscious–caused a rift between her and sister Margaux, who was also an actress.

    “She felt resentment towards me for coming in and sort of taking the limelight, which I didn’t intentionally do,” she said.

    Hemingway’s family life is something she talks about in depth in a new documentary, “Running From Crazy”. In it, she describes taking long walks as a girl to escape the tension in her home, which was compounded by her parents’ drinking.

    “I spent a lot of time outside hiking because my house wasn’t sane,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was crazy, but I felt like I lived in crazy. You know, in the land of crazy. You know, they’d have one glass of wine and things were kind of happy. They were actually having a regular conversation. But after a couple glasses of wine, the alcohol kicked in. Nastiness would happen.”

    She also talks about the long and troubling history her family has with suicide.

    “Ernest’s father [Clarence] committed suicide; my grandfather, Ernest, committed suicide. My great-grandfather on my grandmother’s side. My great-uncle Leicester. My great-aunt Ursula. And my uncle [Gregory]. And then there is my sister.”

    Margaux took her own life in 1996. Mariel says that now, after a lifetime of grief, she’s finally in a place where she can just be happy.

    “My ability to grasp the joy of life is so strong right now,” she said.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons