Whatever Happened To Daryl Hannah?

In the 1980s, Daryl Hannah established herself as a sex symbol with her breakthrough role as Madison, the mermaid with whom Tom Hanks' character falls in love in Ron Howard's 1984 fantasy, "Splash." Prior to that, the actress had appeared in minor roles in Brian De Palma's "The Fury" and Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" in 1978 and 1982, respectively. Through the remainder of the decade, Hannah appeared in supporting roles in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" and Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors", and starred as the titular lead in "Roxanne."

In the 1990s, however, Hannah saw lesser roles bringing her the same level of recognition she enjoyed in the previous decade, which the actress attributes to turning 30 in an industry where ageism runs rampant, especially for women. In 2003 and 2004, audiences were delighted by Hannah's villainous role as Elle Driver in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies, which many hoped would be a comeback for the actress.

Nevertheless, Hannah fell out of the spotlight in subsequent years, partly on her own terms. Apart from making headlines for being arrested a few times for her activism, Hannah has been attracted to other ventures in the years since, having admitted to discovering what truly matters to her aside from acting, along with revelations about the darker shades of Hollywood and its inherent sexism. Fans have had questions about what happened to the once widely recognized actress and sex icon of the 1980s, so here's everything Daryl Hannah had been up to these past few years.

‌Daryl Hannah's passion for safeguarding the environment has led to her having a few brushes with the law. The actress had been arrested a total of five times at various protests. Her first arrest came in 2006 when Hannah protested in unison with over 350 farmers against officials trying to demolish a large urban farm in South Central Los Angeles, by tying herself to a walnut tree.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Hannah said, "It was my first act of nonviolent disobedience for which I went to prison. I spent three-and-a-half weeks on that farm and made sure the story remained in the news and people kept talking about it. The poor are the worst hit by environmental degradation. I believe they need to have a voice and as an actor it is my duty to sensitize the public about these issues."

Her next few arrests came in 2009, during a protest against mountaintop removal in West Virginia, in 2011, for protesting outside the White House against a proposed oil pipeline, and in 2012 and 2013, for protesting against the same pipeline in Texas and at the White House, respectively. Hannah talked with TODAY about why she continues her activism despite her arrests: "I believe that civil disobedience is an incredibly important part of shifting a paradigm ... In my case, it's not something I thought about or decided to do or planned, they occurred when I decided to stand in solidarity with the people who were suffering the effects."

As a result of her activism, several organizations approached Daryl Hannah with requests to join their causes, most of which she entertained. In 2007, Hannah told Swindle Magazine, "Last year I really ran myself ragged trying to help as many people as I could support. My natural instinct is to want to help everybody, but you can't."

Hannah joined the board of the Somaly Mam Foundation, which is devoted to ending sexual slavery and aiding survivors of sex trafficking. She spoke to Marie Claire about Somaly Mam, saying, "She's a former victim of sex slavery who now rescues girls across Southeast Asia. To me, she's got the greatest shelters, because most [others] are run by missionaries, and while their intentions are good, they do have a mission to spread their belief system. Somaly's shelters strictly help victims get their lives back."

Hannah was also an honorary councilor for World Future Council, a foundation focused on sustainable development and environmental protection and also sits on the boards of the Sylvia Earle Alliance and Mission Blue (both founded by marine biologist Sylvia Earle), ecoAmerica, Environmental Media Association, and the Action Sports Environmental Coalition. Being an advocate for biodiesel, Hannah founded the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance in 2006, for which the activist was chosen by the Community Environmental Council as the recipient of the 2011 Environmental Hero Award.

Even though Daryl Hannah found herself getting offered lesser roles after turning 30 and 40, she discovered that she was becoming increasingly at peace with herself as she grew older. For the most part, Hannah was able to overcome the debilitating insecurities she had when she was younger, partly fuelled by her autism and the ageism faced by actresses in Hollywood, and find her true calling in life: protecting the environment and living a sustainable lifestyle.

Hannah spoke with TODAY about the problems she faced with growing older in Hollywood, saying, "I remember when I was 30 years old, I started hearing I was too old for roles, and I'm talking about roles where you're playing a doctor or a teacher or a mother." She added that since the entertainment industry is "still male-dominated," its notions of marketability are heavily reliant on sexualizing young women, saying, "I think the whole idea of sexualizing girls when they're in their pre-teens on magazines and advertisements, it's just creepy."

Hannah told the Telegraph, "I loved turning 40 and look forward to being 50 and 60 even more. I am still learning and growing and that helps keep you young in outlook... I have such a full life compared with how things used to be." She continued, "I no longer worry about what people think of me ... I'm no longer self-obsessed. I'm more worried about protecting creatures and caring for the environment. Such change is the advantage of the passing years."

Every actor has one side hustle or the other to keep themselves occupied when roles aren't coming in as steadily or simply to make some additional pocket money. Jeremy Renner renovates multi-million dollar houses, Jessica Alba makes skin products for babies through her Honest Company, and Steve Carell occasionally mans the cash register at his Marshfield Hills General Store in Massachusetts.

Hannah has a similar hobby-to-side-hustle endeavor going on. From 1995 to 2010, the actress designed four board games — "Love It or Hate It," "LIEbrary," "Famous First Lines" and "Call-It" — the first three of which she created in collaboration with actress and fellow board game enthusiast, Hilary Shepard.

While promoting "Liebrary" on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," the actress talked about her board-gaming hobby, saying, "We always had game nights, it was always like, one of our favorite things to do, is have game nights whenever we're free, and [Liebrary] was always everyone's favorite game to play." In Liebrary, upon picking a card, players are given the title and plot description of a book, and have to "bluff" the first line of the book, with the objective to trick other players into believing that their first line is indeed the correct first line of the assigned book. "This was an old parlor game," Hannah added, "it's been around since the turn of the century."

Being in a creative profession such as filmmaking allows one to transition into other avenues of work within the same field. Much like other actors who also became directors and producers, Daryl Hannah has her fair share of experience in behind-the-camera duties. The actress had produced and executive produced a handful of short and feature films including 2008's "Vice," starring herself and her "Kill Bill" co-star, Michael Madsen, along with the 2012 documentary, "Greedy Lying Bastards," which explores the climate change misinformation propagated by the oil industry.

While Hannah had directed the companion documentary, "Strip Notes," which followed the actress' research process for her role as a stripper in the 2000 erotic film, "Dancing at the Blue Iguana," the budding filmmaker made her writing and directorial debut with the aforementioned 2018 musical film, "Paradox," and the making-of documentary of Young's album, "Barn."

At the South by Southwest premiere of "Paradox," Hannah said (via Yahoo), "I can't even tell you how many years I told my manager I wanted [to direct] ... I have been working on actual, real scripts and stuff for years, and have things that I've developed over the years that I wanted to make as narrative features, and I never even could get a meeting. I even had production deals, but they were always kind of like vanity production deals, ultimately."