William Hurt was a serious actor, with all the baggage the term entails

I had one of the most memorable dinners of my working life with William Hurt.

The actor, whose death at 71 was announced Sunday, was in Austin in the late winter of 1996, filming the comedy “Michael” with writer-director Nora Ephron. As the film critic at the Austin American-Statesman, one of my duties was to make my way on to the set of the film and interview Ephron and her cast, which included John Travolta, Andie MacDowell and Bob Hoskins. But my requests kept getting rebuffed. Finally, a publicist confided that it was Hurt who opposed press visits during filming, which might distract the actor from the job at hand.