Elisa Donovan Instagram – #tbt – The last time I saw Brittany was at the GLAAD Awards in 2005. We ran into each other on the red carpet, smiling & waving frantically. Brittany always had the type of energy that made you feel like she was ecstatic to see you.
Later inside, we chatted briefly and it made me nervous. She was jittery, high strung, unfocused. She blinked a lot and her smile was enormous and strained, as though she had been holding it up for a lifetime and was really screaming on the inside. Her legs were like toothpicks and she kept sort of bending and straightening them sharply in a spasm like way. I was worried about her. I asked her if she was okay. “Of course!” she quipped a little too quickly. Then someone shuttled her backstage so she could get ready to introduce Liza Minnelli, who was receiving the Vanguard Award. When I went back to my seat and watched her on stage I was alarmed. She seemed so unhealthy to me, fragile and on the brink of snapping. I felt crazy because no one else seemed to be concerned. She was so full of smiles and still radiating that hummingbird type of energy, fluttering and magical. But something wasn’t right. And why wasn’t anyone helping her?
Several years later when I found out she passed, while it was indeed shocking, it made me sad that I was simultaneously not very surprised. I immediately thought of that last encounter with her, regretting not having done something. This was a grandiose feeling to have under the circumstances – we were not close, and what could I have done? She was insulated within her own world and I felt like I would have been perceived as an interloper.
Photographs are funny after someone dies. They suspend the person who is gone in a very different way than those who are not. I look at this photo of the 2 of us from the set when we were shooting Clueless and it reminds me —
It’s a gift to grow old.
In honor of the #GLAADAWARDS tonight – I’m thinking of you, Brittany. And applauding all of the beautiful souls being honored there tonight, and all of the beautiful souls we’ve lost over the years who were advocates for equal rights for the #lgbtq community. 🫶💔🕊️ #glaad #brittanymurphy #clueless | Posted on 15/Mar/2024 00:00:03
