'I'm queen of the world!'
She was a starving NYC artist who worked in construction to pay the rent, she climbs mountains, and she’s dating a guy 21 years her junior. Meet Kathryn Bigelow, the baddest dude in Hollywood.
Last Updated: 9:30 AM, March 9, 2010
Posted: 12:59 AM, March 9, 2010
Comments: 20
PrintKathryn Bigelow sounds less like a director and more like a hero from a 1930s pulp novel. She has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in freezing temperatures. She once went diving in Fiji, lost her weight belt and nearly died. She is an expert rider of horses. She once stopped a bank robbery with nothing more than a hard stare.
Sorry, no. That last one was probably The Shadow.
But there’s no denying that Bigelow is Hollywood’s biggest badass.
Back in the 1970s when Bigelow was a young artist living in New York City, she made ends meet — not by waiting tables or working a cushy retail job, but by doing construction. (Oddly, she toiled alongside composer Philip Glass, whose specialty was plumbing.)
“She was very good with her hands, but everybody had to be in those days or else you didn’t eat,” says noted conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner, with whom Bigelow worked in the 1970s. “She didn’t like [construction], but she did it.”
“She was living rough in places, like all of us were,” Weiner says.
“She lived down by the waterfront [by the South Street Seaport] and on Greene Street for a while.”
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Even when she became a successful movie director, she never became a diva and demanded the good life. Conditions on the set of “The Hurt Locker,” filmed in the sweltering desert outside Amman, Jordan, were somewhat grim. And that’s being charitable. Temperatures reaching 115 degrees. Sandstorms. Windstorms. Flies everywhere. Nobody on-set got an air-conditioned trailer or a private bathroom. Instead, they took breaks in Bedouin tents pitched on the scorching sand.
The hardship paid off. Critics praised “The Hurt Locker” for its rawness and realism, and the movie went on to win big at Sunday’s Oscars, taking home statues for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director.
And Bigelow’s achievements don’t end there. She also snagged an Oscar-winning boyfriend 21 years her junior. Her current beau is 37-year-old Mark Boal, a journalist and “The Hurt Locker” screenwriter whom Bigelow first met while working on the short-lived 2005 cop series “The Inside.”
Growing up near San Francisco, Bigelow was a bit of a tomboy. She liked riding horses and being outside — pastimes she continues to enjoy today. She often spends a couple of hours a day hiking through the hills near her Beverly Hills mansion, and if you saw the 58-year-old’s arms on Sunday (yes, she’s 58!), you can guess she works out religiously.
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Comments (15)
Post Your Commentavaleigh
03/09/2010 5:34 PM
Sorry!!! MY computer jammed.
avaleigh
03/09/2010 5:33 PM
She looked stunning for her age!!I am glad that she won. After her ex- hubby declared himself "King of the world!!!"when he won for Titanic he will never win an Oscar in Hollywood again, They were appalled at his arrogance then and they have elephant memories.Genius director but a social dummy he was.
avaleigh
03/09/2010 5:33 PM
She looked stunning for her age!!I am glad that she won. After her ex- hubby declared himself "King of the world!!!"when he won for Titanic he will never win an Oscar in Hollywood again, They were appalled at his arrogance then and they have elephant memories.Genius director but a social dummy he was.
avaleigh
03/09/2010 5:33 PM
She looked stunning for her age!!I am glad that she won. After her ex- hubby declared himself "King of the world!!!"when he won for Titanic he will never win an Oscar in Hollywood again, They were appalled at his arrogance then and they have elephant memories.Genius director but a social dummy he was.
avaleigh
03/09/2010 5:32 PM
She looked stunning for her age!!I am glad that she won. After her ex- hubby declared himself "King of the world!!!"when he won for Titanic he will never win an Oscar in Hollywood again, They were appalled at his arrogance then and they have elephant memories.Genius director but a social dummy he was.
avaleigh
03/09/2010 5:32 PM
She looked stunning for her age!!I am glad that she won. After her ex- hubby declared himself "King of the world!!!"when he won for Titanic he will never win an Oscar in Hollywood again, They were appalled at his arrogance then and they have elephant memories.Genius director but a social dummy he was.
avaleigh
03/09/2010 5:31 PM
She looked stunning for her age!!I am glad that she won. After her ex- hubby declared himself "King of the world!!!"when he won for Titanic he will never win an Oscar in Hollywood again, They were appalled at his arrogance then and they have elephant memories.Genius director but a social dummy he was.
PussPimples
03/09/2010 5:18 PM
THE MOVIE SUCKED!!!!!