“The central mystery of Claire is, where does she come from?” Cunningham said. “She doesn’t match her family. If you gathered into a room two dozen parent-aged people and said, ‘O.K., spot the Daneses,’ you couldn’t do it.” - × × ×

“A couple of times in her childhood, Danes had a “dalliance with madness.” Terrifying visions of ghosts and gargoyles emerged out of the showerhead and from shapes in the woodwork. “Very O.C.D.,” she said. “They were gonna suck me into some horrible place.” She briefly saw a psychiatrist. Later, when she was nineteen, famous, living in her own SoHo loft (with a ceiling swing), and coming down from her first and last hit of Ecstasy, Danes was again visited by these emissaries of her unconscious aggression. “They were the same, except smaller,” she said. “I was, like, ‘Really, guys? You’re still here? I’m a grownup. I’m done.’ ” - × × ×