Heather Donahue
Heather Donahue is an actor, born 1974.
She was an unknown when The Blair Witch Project opened in 1999, and then briefly and uncomfortably famous, largely on the strength of one shot: her own face in the dark, filmed by her, talking into a camera she is holding. The film's method left her performing under her own name, which meant a lot of the audience did not entirely believe there was a performance at all. That confusion made the film, and it made her life difficult.
The follow-ups were smaller and far more conventional. Megan in the romantic comedy Boys and Girls (2000), Mary Crawford in the science fiction miniseries Taken (2002), Molly in New Suit, Cpl. Keats in the creature feature Manticore (2005), plus guest spots on television. None of it could compete with the thing everyone already had an opinion about.
She retired from acting in 2008, and in 2020 formally changed her name to Rei Hance. Her only later Blair Witch appearance is archive footage in the 2016 sequel.
The performance is better than its reputation. What she does in that long piece to camera is close to the hardest thing an actor can be asked to do, with no coverage to hide in and nothing but a face and a torch, and it is why the film still works on people who arrive knowing exactly what it is.
Movies (6)
TV (1)
Where to start with Heather Donahue
The Blair Witch Project is the whole reason for this page, and it is worth watching cold if you somehow can. Set aside the arguments about whether it is frightening and watch her instead: a long, controlled unravelling performed in available light.
Pair it with Curse of the Blair Witch, the fake documentary made to sell the film. It is a genuinely clever piece of marketing and it explains why so many people were taken in during 1999.
After that the pickings are lean, and you should know it going in. Taken is the substantial one, a long-form science fiction story that hands her an actual character to build. Boys and Girls is a straight romantic comedy, Manticore is a low-budget monster picture with more charm than budget, and Blair Witch uses her only as archive footage.