Plot: After a man is accused of driving his girlfriend to suicide, his ex-girlfriend Hedda (Robin Wright), a troubled woman who can’t hate or hurt others even if they had wronged her, is subpoenaed to testify on his abusive behavior during their relationship.

Director: Erin Dignam

Writing Credits: Erin Dignam

Cast: William Hurt, Robin Wright Penn, Amy Madigan, Lucinda Jenney, Joanna Cassidy, Jennifer Rubin, Paul Dooley, LaTanya Richardson, Michael Tomlinson, Anthony Lucero & Sean Penn

Music by: David Baerwald

Genre: Psychological Drama

Filming Dates: October 30, 1995 | December 1995

Filming Locations: Los Angeles (USA)

Release Date: April 1997 (Los Angeles Independent Film Festival)

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense thematic elements, brief disturbing images, language and nudity

Runtime: 109 minutes

Assistant to Robin Wright: Jerva Cox

‘Loved’ is the first movie where Robin Wright is credited as Robin Wright Penn. She will maintain this name until “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” (2009) the last movie where she will be Robin Wright Penn.

‘Loved’ is Robin Wright’s second movie with her longtime friend Erin Dignam. The first was ‘Denial’ filmed in December 1987. Dignam wrote the lead part of Hedda specifically for Wright.

Robin Wright as Hedda Amerson

The movie ‘Loved’ begins with a death…, or is it murder?

A woman runs in front of a car, but the D.A. in charge of the case, K.D. Dietrickson (William Hurt) suspects that there is more to the story than a woman with a death wish.

In an effort to build a case against the man, the D.A. contacts one of his first girlfriends, Hedda Amerson (Robin Wright), who shudders when he mentions what he wants her to do: testify against her former boyfriend and stop him from hurting anyone else.

Even though Hedda broke up with him after a violent incident that caused her to fall out of a window, she hasn’t been able to get him out of her mind, and her sorrow over ending the affair has led her to attempt suicide on more than one occasion.

Hedda still loves him and, in her mind, she has turned the incident into a situation in which she was at fault.

Hedda is introduced as a woman who appears quiet and somewhat withdrawn, but beneath that fragile exterior lies a deeply sensitive and emotionally conflicted personality.

She is intelligent and observant, yet she carries a profound insecurity that makes her susceptible to the influence of others.

One of the most striking aspects of Hedda’s personality is her internal struggle between dependence and independence. She wants to be strong and self-sufficient, yet she repeatedly finds herself drawn into emotionally destructive situations.

Despite the urgings of Hedda’s concerned parents (Joanna Cassidy and Paul Dooley) and her sister, a tough lawyer named Brett (Amy Madigan), Hedda seems unmovable, which makes it all the more difficult for Dietrickson to stop the abuser before he can hurt someone else.

Robin Wright character is eccentric, direct, sensitive and disciplined as a swimmer, honest, yet confused about the abusive relationship. She defends it as the best thing that ever happened to her, but everyone around her is convinced that she’s a victim.

An important aspect of Hedda’s past is that she was once a passionate and professional swimmer. However, she can no longer pursue it because she suffered injuries during one of the violent incidents with her former boyfriend. This detail adds another layer of sadness to her character: the loss of something that once gave her joy and freedom.

Hedda Amerson is insistent upon the precise language she needs for her experience; “hit” as opposed to “strike”; “stepped into” as opposed to “jumped off”…, yet she is in denial about her year and a half of insomnia that drove her to attempt suicide. It started right after she heard that the abusive man hurt his new girlfriend more than her: which she understood in her private nightmare as proof that he loved the new woman more.

Hedda has come to equate the degree of violence with the degree of genuine connection, and feels “envy”. At this point she lost touch with reality and became afraid of the dark: “the table was not a table.”

In this movie, love is like a drug: if you become addicted, it can ruin you.

Hedda response to “if you were to go back in time what would you do?”, “I would do everything just the same”… was a really shocking moment.

One important part of the movie is the friendship between William Hurt and Robin Wright. He saves her from her confusion and denial, yet in the end it is suggested that she will save him in turn from his own loss. In the final scene, we cannot tell whether she will pull him into the pool or he will pull her out, precisely because it is both at once on the emotional level.

‘Loved’ is a dark and intimate exploration of abusive relationships and the psychological traps that can bind people together in destructive ways.

Robin Wright portrays Hedda with remarkable sensitivity and restraint. Rather than playing the character as simply fragile or victimized, Wright reveals Hedda’s inner conflict through subtle expressions, quiet moments of hesitation, and powerful emotional outbursts.

Her performance captures the character’s vulnerability, but also hints at the strength and awareness slowly emerging within her.

Robin Wright Awards and Nominations for the movie ‘Loved’ (1997)

• Seattle Film Festival | Golden Space Needle (Best Actress Award) | Winner
• Independent Spirit Awards | Best Female Lead | Nominated

For the movie ‘Loved’, Robin Wright won the Best Actress Award at The Seattle International Film Festival. She also was nominated as Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.