![]() ![]() Standing at the top of a black diamond run, I looked at my instructor. I learned to aim my body, to work with gravity. All I could do was alternately laugh and cry.įor the next few days, I waited in the morning for the lifts to open and left at night only after they closed. I slid through the end gates, and when I stopped, the people at the bottom of the mountain lifted me up. Suddenly, I was speeding down that mountain, full force. I gathered myself up, balanced on my skis, and took off. "Come on, Virginia!" they were screaming. I listened harder, through the heavy wind. To the side, I saw all these spectators ringing cowbells and shouting something. After I had taken a dozen (televised) falls, a man came by on a snowmobile. When it came time for the race, I tumbled every three feet. Next thing I knew, I was facedown in the snow-my puffy gray coat tangled and my giant hat askew-as television actors flew off jumps in the distance and starlets whizzed by in their pink ski bunny getups. Cheerily insisting that I take part in the celebrity race, they presented me with two handsome coaches. ![]() I wasn't feeling terrific, but I thought I might as well spend a few days sipping hot toddies in the alpine lounge. "But I can't ski," I told the organizers. Then I was invited, out of nowhere, to a celebrity ski event in Utah. Defying the doctor's orders, I started doing Pilates and yoga, running and weight lifting. The doctor prescribed pain medication and plenty of bed rest.Īs I lay there feeling my body and spirit weaken, I knew I had to find a way to feel good again. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, I stumbled off a sidewalk and fell so hard that I injured my neck. I felt lazy and toxic and had no energy for auditions, and anyway, I was old news in Hollywood. So what the heck was the Sideways star doing hurling herself down a snowy mountain?Īfter my son was born in 1994, I was exhausted and depleted-a single mother with undiagnosed postpartum depression and a baby who couldn't sleep through the night. Her career was iffy, her self-esteem careening, her spirit shot, and her neck banged up. ![]()
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