Undiscovered

After decades of fame that Debra Winger likens to 'wanting a pony for your birthday and getting a big shiny merry-go-round instead', the actress most recently known for being a reclusive "retiree" (she will appear in a new release in 2008) from the silver screen emerges with the revelation that she has spent the past dozen years polishing her prose for a noteworthy literary debut. Winger is that rare star who dared to resist the all-consuming industry that is Hollywood becoming her entire reason for being. "I love the work," she states, "and don't much care for the business." Yet she cares deeply for the people who have inspired her. We meet them (most famously, James Bridges, Jack Nicholson; most dearly, her mother, husband, and sons) here, as Winger passionately makes her case for forging a life beyond acting - and shows how she has done just that. Winger's screen performances have long been celebrated for their breathtaking emotional range, a quality that shines through in these pages. "When I was little," she writes, "someone told me that when you age, you turn into the person you were all your life."