October 2011 was a slow week for celebrity segments on David Letterman, as infamously troubled Hollywood actress Sean Young made her most recent and possibly final talk show appearance. It what was a reprisal to her notorious 90s interview on The Joan Rivers Show, in which the actress dressed as Catwoman and announced her bid to star in Batman Returns. While both visits were a mere blip in the minds of the masses, her story goes down in cult pop culture history to the few who care.
Famous in the eighties for huge films such as Blade Runner, Wall Street, and more commonly: Ace Ventura Pet Detective, it was Sean Young's on-set antics that have since become the stuff of legends. From the disturbing rumor of threatening fellow co-star James Woods with an iodine-laced decapitated doll on his doorstep (supposedly for spurning her); to drunken awards show antics — from there it only got weirder.
After she was labeled a 'troublemaker' (by men) early on in her career, Young’s career seemed like it had been poisoned, at least, that’s how the tabloids played it out. Rumors swirled around her on-set behavior and relationships with co-stars, but before the age of social media, they were just that: rumors. The first major quibble was said to be with legendary director Oliver Stone, with reports saying that she clashed on-set with Charlie Sheen. However, little evidence seems to support this outside of the gossip rags.
After being let go from 1989's Batman due to an injury, Young campaigned to play Catwoman in the sequel, donning a full Catsuit and breaking into Director Tim Burton's trailer and pouncing on him in-character to play the part. The bold decision, announced on her Letterman appearance, according to Hollywood, was the final nail in her coffin.
In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, Young states:
“Of course if I were a man I’d have been treated better […] Why are the dudes that run Hollywood incapable of honoring the women anymore? Maybe it’s because all these dudes were not the first choice of the women of their youths […] But they can make it in Tinseltown and perpetuate the desperate delusion that they are powerful.”
She’s not wrong, her media depiction was not far removed from the ancient trope of tearing women in Hollywood apart, but combined with a stint in rehab, her story became a much darker one.
In 2008, after being removed from an awards' ceremony for heckling, Young finally checked herself into rehab for alcohol abuse, and once again in 2011, this time televised on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Post the early 2000s, Young continued to work in small features to earn a living, but her perceived sins of the past seemed to have dimmed the possibilities of ever reaching the A-List heights of yesteryear. That said, with the golden age of television hitting dizzying peaks, all it would take is for someone akin to Hollywood’s Ryan Murphy to carve up a juicy, albeit inside-wink of a role for Ms. Young, to shoot her back into relevance.