- Emily Jessup
Emily Jessup is a
fictional character who appears in thebook andfilm adaptation of "Altered States ". She is played byBlair Brown .Emily is first introduced as a 24 year old
Ph.D candidate and aspiringAnthropology Professor who meets theprotagonist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt ) at a party. Emily is a brilliant, beautiful red head but at the same time she is lonely and feels unloved, and quickly latches onto Eddie, who proves to be a very "fascinating bastard". After enjoying a night of passionate lovemaking, Eddie confesses a long buried secret of his to Emily, but it does not derail her interest in him.Emily marries Eddie and they have two daughters, but Eddie's unrelenting fascination with altered states of the
mind drives him todivorce her so he can pursue his research on the subject, breaking her heart. They remain in close contact though as Eddie relays many of his findings and discoveries to Emily, who fears that he is becoming unhinged by his obsession with alternate forms ofconsciousness .After picking him up from jail, she attends one of his
sleep deprivation tank experiments with his colleagues, where her insecurity and fear over the matter become apparent, and watches in horror when Eddie begins tomutate into an alternate form of life, opening up a hole in the dimensionalvortex .Eddie survives and is taken back to Emily's home, where she goes into shock and breaks down into tears over his recklessness and inability to understand or accept the
human state as it is. By this point she also believes that Eddie never truly loved her or ever cared about her at all, contrary to what his colleague tells her.A rehabilitated Eddie watches over Emily as she sleeps naked - a classic symbol of vulnerability - in a chair and covers her with a
blanket . The next morning when she wakes up, Eddie confesses to her that she is the most important thing in his life along with theirchild ren, and that she was the one thing that kept him from being completely consumed by the "cold, hideous nothing" that is consuming him from within. Emily asks him to come back to her, but he says it may be too late - and then begins to mutate again. Dropping her blanket, a completely naked Emily rushes to him, but when she touches him the mutationinfect s her and begins to mutate her into an alternate form of life. Eddie manages to reject the mutation and saves Emily, restoring her to human form.
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