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Epoch Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Patricia Heaton and David Hunt: ‘Unexpected'
In observance of National Infertility Awareness month, producers (and couple) Patricia Heaton and David Hunt are promoting their 2023 comedic drama, 'Unexpected,' now available on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube. Known to most audiences as the female lead in the TV shows 'Everybody Loves Raymond' and 'The Middle' (nine seasons each), Heaton has now produced a dozen films and TV shows. Having shared the big screen with Jim Caviezel, Meg Ryan, Albert Finney, and Clint Eastwood, Hunt makes his live-action feature debut as director here. Heaton and Hunt spoke from their home in Nashville to discuss 'Unexpected' and some of their current and future projects. David Hunt, director of "Unexpected." Courtesy of David Hunt Michael Clark: I read the synopsis of the book ('Enslaved by Ducks') that your movie is based on, and there was no mention of adoption (the main theme). Is that correct? David Hunt: Yes, 100 percent. We wrote scripts based on the book, and they weren't working. I then approached a writer (Rodney Vaccaro) that I'd worked with on several past projects and said, 'This needs another engine. Let's introduce the subjects of infertility and adoption. The wife wants to have kids and the husband doesn't.' A few weeks later [Vaccaro] came back with the finished screenplay. In doing so, he mentioned that his two daughters were adopted, and the story just poured out of him. Actress Patricia Heaton, producer of "Unexpected." Kate Romero Clark: I noticed you made a pro-life movie without actually using those words or mention of abortion. Why do you think adoption has received relatively little attention? Patricia Heaton: The writer [Vaccaro] with the adopted daughters told us it's a complicated issue. The husband in the movie says, 'I don't think I can adopt another person's child.' His wife retorts with, 'It wouldn't be another person's child, it would be our child.' You have these two opposing views; the struggle in the movie is trying to get the couple on the same page mentally. Related Stories 5/21/2024 3/16/2025 We've been with friends as they've gone through the adoption process, and they have the birth mother asking to take the child back. Or, when an adopted child wants to meet their biological parents and whether or not the birth parents will agree. It's complicated and not nearly as smooth as you might think. Hunt: There's a stigma in certain places in society regarding adoption and people feel a lot of pressure. One of the goals of the film was we try to take that pressure off a bit by showing this couple's struggles and giving people a sense of hope. Clark: Patricia, I noticed Neil Flynn, your co-star from 'The Middle,' plays a character named 'Rupert Murdoch.' I laughed hard when I first heard it. Is there a reason why that particular name was chosen? Heaton: There's no reason, and there's nothing political about it [laughs]. Rodney just thought it was funny. Clark: Could you give me any details regarding the project you're now involved with, the 'October 7th Coalition?' Hunt: I created it with my friend Elizabeth Dorros. When October 7th happened and I saw the Hamas body cam footage online being celebrated the world over and on U.S. college campuses, I was in shock. I'm a baby boomer and grew up knowing our parents fought in World War II and that Jews were obliterated during the Holocaust. Never again would we let that happen. And then there it was suddenly happening again. Here in Nashville, there was an awkward feeling; people didn't know what to do or how to show their support. So we created the 'October 7th Coalition' to activate Christians to be visibly and vocally supportive of Israel's right to exist and to fight anti-Semitism. We have community dinners; we encourage people to put mezuzahs on their doors as a 'Spartacus' moment. [We ask people] to be involved in social media, and to donate, if possible, to the many Jewish organizations that are helping to heal people from this second Holocaust. Clark: You are both appearing in the upcoming movie called 'Merv.' When is it being released and what is it about? Hunt: It comes out Dec. 17 on Amazon Prime. Heaton: It's a romcom. … Hunt: It's about a couple that becomes estranged, and they have a dog named Merv, who pines for them to get back together. We play the parents of the husband character (Charlie Cox). Clark: I've noticed a lot of people in the entertainment industry, not just musicians, have been moving to Nashville. Why did you two relocate there? Heaton: There's a lot of artistic momentum going on here now. Initially, it was because our oldest son started music school here in 2012. In the subsequent years, we just began to really love the city. Clark: 'Unexpected' has been out since 2023. Why are you promoting it now? Heaton: April is National Infertility Awareness month. Poster for "Unexpected." Blue Fox Entertainment Clark: OK, that makes complete sense. Hunt: We wanted to highlight the issue and especially the emotional aspect of it for couples and what they deal with. What's so beautiful about 'Unexpected' is that you get into the story through humor, and you wouldn't think you could find humor in a subject matter like this. Rodney was able to bring out the humor, the actors were great, and Dave provided excellent direction. For me, working on comedies … I've always felt comedy is the best way to deal with serious or difficult subjects. Foundationally, you lay it in humor, and your heart literally physically opens up because as you laugh you're oxygenating your bloodstream, opening everything up. You then come in with the unexpected [dramatic] events, and people are really moved because they're open and primed. What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? 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Fox News
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Patricia Heaton warns women not to wait too long to have children
Patricia Heaton advises couples wanting to have kids to start trying as early as possible. The "Everybody Loves Raymond" star, who, alongside her husband, produced the movie "Unexpected," which is about a couple's infertility journey, told Fox News Digital that one of the roadblocks for couples dealing with the issue is that "people are waiting longer to try and get pregnant." "So they're in their 30s before they're trying. And I understand that we're living in a different time now. You might feel like, in your 20s, you're not ready, you can't afford it. But, if at all possible, the earlier you start, the better," Heaton said. "You have better chances because once you get in your 30s, and then you realize there's an issue, the clock is really ticking." In 2020, Heaton called motherhood "indescribable." "Being a mother is indescribable; joy, worry, delight, frustration, but ultimately the greatest satisfaction and deepest human love of your life. So grateful," she wrote in an Instagram post in 2020 along with a throwback photo of her boys when they were young. Heaton and her husband, David Hunt, met in the late 1980s and have been married since October 1990. They share four grown sons together who inspired the name of their production company, FourBoys Entertainment. Their children are Samuel, 31, John, 29, Joseph, 27 and Daniel, 26. "You might feel like, in your 20s, you're not ready, you can't afford it. But, if at all possible, the earlier you start, the better. You have better chances because once you get in your 30s, and then you realize there's an issue, the clock is really ticking." WATCH: PATRICIA HEATON WARNS COUPLES NOT TO WAIT TOO LONG BEFORE TRYING TO HAVE CHILDREN Heaton and Hunt spoke with Fox News Digital about balancing their marriage and the challenges that sometimes come with working together. "We're both actors with strong opinions," the actress told Fox News Digital. "Dave was the director, so there's that." Heaton, a producer on "Unexpected," said she would sit next to Hunt while he was directing and, although she has no interest in being a director herself, "I do have opinions." "So, we would sit at the monitors together, and I just made sure he had it before he leapt out of his chair to go talk to the actors," she said. Hunt added that it took the couple "a minute," but they were eventually able to set up a "routine" for working together. "I got so passionate about it," he said of directing the movie, "my headphones would come up, and I'd fly on set and I would hear, 'Wait wait, wait, I've got notes,' and 'Oh, hang on,' so we would always say I wouldn't rush onto set until we had conferred, if she had anything cogent to say." WATCH: PATRICIA HEATON, HUSBAND DAVID HUNT ON WORKING TOGETHER: 'WE'RE BOTH ACTORS WITH STRONG OPINIONS' The movie, originally released in 2023 and now available on Amazon Prime Video, came from a book they optioned in 2004 called "Enslaved by Ducks," about a couple who adopt several animals. "We're both actors with strong opinions." "It was very amusing, but it wasn't working as a screenplay," Hunt explained. "And we had a reading in our house in L.A. with some actors and it kind of died a death. And I turned to the writer who we'd been working with for a while and I said, 'We need a new engine. Let's make the couple childless, and they can't have kids, and they think about adopting… animals as a substitute for the children, and blah, blah, let's use that.'" Hunt said the writer wrote a first draft in a week. "He said, 'Yeah, it poured out of me.' He said, 'I never told you this' – And we'd been working with him for several years – 'Both my daughters were adopted.' And it was at that moment that we realized, 'Oh, yeah, we've really hit on a nerve here because this is an issue that's not talked about enough,'" Hunt explained. "And we had had a lot of friends who had struggled with the same issue for many years, very painful experiences they went through. So that was kind of the genesis of it." Heaton said of the movie's rerelease: "We feel like it didn't get a fair viewing the first time out, it's like two years old. And so we really wanted to take this opportunity to share it with the audience, because there's so many people we know that are struggling with this issue." Heaton explained that they were forced to shoot "Unexpected" a second time after having it nearly finished when the pandemic hit in 2020. "We had to shoot this movie twice because the first one happened, the first shoot happened and the pandemic shut us down five days before we were finished," she said. "We only had five days left, and we had to redo the whole thing. We had to… do all kinds of crazy stuff, so that was very tense and difficult, but you know we're still here, we're together." WATCH: PATRICIA HEATON'S HUSBAND DAVID HUNT DESCRIBES INSPIRATION BEHIND THEIR MOVIE 'UNEXPECTED' Hunt said he hoped the audience would take from the film that "anything is possible if your heart is in the right place." Heaton added, "I think in all the projects that I've been blessed to be in, 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' 'The Middle' and now 'Unexpected,' it's about seeing your life with humor, embracing the messiness, not looking at things as necessarily negative, but seeing things as opportunities to grow, seeing challenges as opportunities to discover some new things about yourself, your life, where you're going, where your partner is. Embracing the challenges, embracing the difficulties and embracing it together." While talking about their marriage in a 2008 interview with Today's Christian Woman, the couple explained that they met after Hunt became her landlord when she sublet his apartment. "It was great, because I had an in," Hunt joked. "I'd call her to discuss the phone bill or some such nonsense, but I ended up reading her Yeats over the phone. When she didn't hang up, I figured there was a crack in the door." Heaton told the outlet that she was wary of Hunt at first because he was an actor and actors "never commit to anything for long," but he "hooked me with that British accent, and then I was in too deep." She said at the time that the best part of being married is "having somebody who knows you at your worst and is still there for you."
