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.
The Wake-up Call
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.
‘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.
Rekindling the Flame With Don Johnson
After rehab, a program that Mike Nichols directed her to, Melanie tumbled back into the arms of her first love. Sober for the first time, she felt safe and secure with Johnson, the man she loved as a teenager.
At that point, both had gone through rehabilitation, and with sobriety, and at the height of their careers, the couple tied the knot again. They remarried in June of 1989. On October 4, 1989, they welcomed Dakota Johnson to the world.
Remarrying Didn’t Bring the Peace She Craved
The birth of her second child brought more stress. Her first child, Alexander Bauer, was four years old when his baby sister was born, and mainstream success was taking its toll. Her substance abuse issues, increasingly hitting the spotlight, had become so problematic that studios stopped offering her work.
After Mike Nichols pushed her into rehab, her efforts for getting cleaned paid off, and she began focusing on her film career. She first took a role in 'Pacific Heights', which saw moderate success. However, most of the films she chose during this period were destined to flop.