The actor and director talks about the perils of fame, sexual violence in the industry and returning to the screen in the Mad About You reboot and the new BBC drama World on Fire

Helen Hunt was 34 when she won the best actress Oscar for As Good As It Gets, and the attention made her anxious. “It was a very famous time. I felt quite nervous because I was being followed,” she says. “I remember thinking: ‘What if I can’t turn this off? Am I always going to be walking to my car and there are people with cameras there? Does this last for ever?’”

The answer was no. Hunt is 56 now, and the intervening decades have brought her a more interesting, but intrinsically more private life. After starting her career as a television actor at the age of nine, she has forged a successful life behind the camera, as well as in front of it.