It all seemed like self-medication to her. She used substances to calm her anxieties and escape her internal suffering. One day, on the set of ‘Working Girl’, a message hit home. Director Mike Nichols sat her down. She arrived at the set drunk one too many times, and he gave her a warning.
In an interview with Parade, she divulged, “I wasn’t very concerned about my future.” She also talked about how using substances had become all too normal for her.
Mainstream Recognition
Though she had been behind the camera since she was nine months old, it wasn’t until 1988 when she hit the big time with 'Working Girl'. Starring alongside Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, and Joan Cusack, she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.
In one review of the comedy-drama directed by Mike Nichols, Variety magazine praised her role as secretary Tess McGill writing, “Griffith stands apart, both for her eagerness to break out of her clerical rut and her tenacity dealing with whoever seems to be thwarting her.”
A New Love
After a wild ride with Don Johnson, she would have more pain to deal with, only this time it was also physical. Melanie was attacked by a lion during the filming of 'Roar', her mother’s big cat production in 1981, which was directed by her stepfather, Noel Marshall. The scene made the cut. For her part, she required facial reconstruction surgery. Just a year before, she was hit by a car and hospitalized after walking across Sunset Boulevard while intoxicated.
Finally, something went right that same year, when she was introduced to Steven Bauer. They met while filming the TV movie "She’s in the Army Now". Not long after, she moved to NY, and they were married. They had their first child, Alexander Griffith, in 1985. When the marriage dissolved, she spiraled back into a pattern of heavy drinking.
‘Working Girl’ Really Got Her Working
The success of 'Working Girl' brought a slew of new film roles Melanie’s way. She worked one gig after another all through the nineties. The overnight success made her a true A-lister, starring in mainstream movies like 'Born Yesterday', 'Nobody’s Fool', 'Paradise', 'Now and Then', 'Milk Money', 'Shining Through', 'A Stranger Among Us', and 'The Bonfire of the Vanities'.
One of those Hollywood movies would change her life forever. That film was the 1996 romantic comedy, 'Two Much'. But 1996 was still many years away. In the meantime, she starred with Don Johnson in several 1990s movies.
Trouble in Paradise
Steven Bauer and Melanie hitched up in the early 1980s. When little Alexander was born in 1985, she was already struggling with substance abuse, and the marriage wasn’t going very well either. The couple tried to stay together for their child, but it wasn’t that simple. By the time 'Working Girl' came out, the two had called it quits. Melanie was not happy.
She later admitted feeling depressed and lonely. In an interview, she said, “What I did was drink myself to sleep at night. If I wasn’t with someone, I was an unhappy girl.” The split made it worse. Once she was alone, she revealed that she began having problems with more serious substances. She wouldn’t let this secret out until another rehab term in 1988.