Heche was declared dead on Friday, before being taken off life support Sunday evening.
Anne Heche’s Men in Trees co-star, Emily Bergl, paid a touching tribute to the actress -- who was declared dead on Friday, a week after a fiery car crash. In a lengthy post on her Instagram, Bergl honored Heche, who was often described as “crazy.”
“You worked with crazy Anne Heche?” “So how crazy was she?” I worked with Anne Heche for two years on the TV show Men in Trees, and this line of questioning was usually the first out of people’s mouths,” the 47-year-old wrote next to a photo of the late actress.
“She elicited more curiosity than any other famous person I’ve ever worked with. I’d like to give you the answers to the questions I most received about Anne, answers that I gave many, many times. Anne was not only a genius, but one of the most astoundingly focused and prepared actors I’ve ever worked with. I don’t think I ever saw her miss her mark. I imagine she may have called for her line once or twice but I can’t recall her ever needing it. I asked her what her secret was, and she told me her first job was playing twins on Another World, so she had to memorize up to seventy pages of dialogue a day,” she wrote about the actress who starred on the ABC comedy from 2006-2008.
“The only joke I did make about Anne was that it’s likely she didn’t have a psychotic break, but really was an alien, because her strength seemed super human. She would work for twelve hours, invite everyone to the bar, drink a couple of doubles, and be back at work at four AM,” she continued in her tribute.
“As I would roll in feeling barely human, she would walk into the makeup trailer, always on time, her smiling face luminous without a lick of makeup. Scene after scene, her work would be flawless, and yet always remained spontaneous. I don’t think she was capable of phoning it in. And then she would do it all again the next day,” she added.
Bergl went on to admire the fact that Heche seemed to embrace the word crazy, having incorporated the term in the title of her deeply personal memoir.
“It’s no wonder Anne titled her brilliant memoir Call Me Crazy, she beat everyone to the punch. She was talking about mental health before it was acceptable to talk about those struggles,” the actress added. “She was raped by her father, her brother killed himself, and her mother told her she would burn in Hell for loving a woman. But despite a sometimes harrowing life, she was so much fun to be around. She was insouciant, joyous, insightful.”
Bergl ended her tribute, “We so rarely investigate the abuse, the gaslighting, the misogyny, the homophobia that drives people to finally take up the 'crazy' mantle that’s been placed upon them. I would tell you to read Call Me Crazy, but it’s now $200 on Amazon. I paid it because I want to read it again. She was a true genius, and I miss her. #ripanneheche.”
Following her tribute, Bergl and Heche’s Men in Trees co-star, and Heche’s former partner, James Tupper, praised the post. “Oh god thank you for writing this. Is all completely accurate and true. love you e,” he wrote in the comments.
Amanda Seyfried also took to the comments to honor the late actress, writing, “Truly incandescent woman. She was fearless and truthful and so, so wonderful to watch."
On Aug. 5, Heche was rushed to the hospital with severe burns after she crashed her blue Mini Cooper into a home, shortly before 11 a.m. P.T.
Heche was declared dead on Friday at the age of 53. On Sunday, a rep confirmed to ET that the actress was "peacefully" taken off life support, as her organs found recipients for transplants. In the week following her accident and death, Heche was flooded with tributes from her former co-stars, friends and Tupper -- who is the father of her 13-year-old son, Atlas.
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