Daryl Hannah
Daryl Hannah said she had Autism in a recent interview. Reuters

Daryl Hannah, the star of hit movies like “Wall Street," “Splash" and most recently "Kill Bill," says she left Hollywood because of her autism. The 52-year-old actress is a rarity in the autism community, Forbes.com pointed out, being that she is female and middle-aged. Many of the people who made headlines for being autistic are typically younger children and males, mostly because more boys are diagnosed with autism than girls.

There are different variations and degrees of autism, or autism spectrum disorder as it’s more accurately called now. Not everyone with the disorder is like Dustin Hoffman's character in “Rain Man,” as some commenters on a People.com story pointed out, and just because someone has ASD doesn’t mean they can’t go on to lead a typical life.

For Hannah, however, leaving Hollywood was the right choice, she said in People.com interview on Saturday. She has acted opposite such big names as Michael Douglas, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford and Steve Martin, but the life she led made her want to vanish.

"I've never been comfortable being the center of attention," she told People.com . "It's always freaked me out." Hannah was reportedly diagnosed with autism as a child, the news site wrote, and suffered from “debilitating shyness.”

According to the news site, the blonde beauty, who they described as “loopy,” has since focused on environmentalism on a rural spread near Los Angeles where she now lives. She’s traded in her movie star life to drive a truck that runs on French fry grease. She also takes care of on her pet pig, Molly, who can be seen in the picture posted on People.com’s article.

But Hannah hasn’t completely given up on acting. She appears in a comedy ensemble called The Hot Flashes and added that now she feels comfortable in her own skin.

The People.com article generated quite the response; both good and bad. In the nearly 300 comments following the story, some were confused and said it doesn’t tell much other than Hannah left Hollywood because of her autism. Many even debated whether she was properly diagnosed. Some took the time to address her physical features, both praising and condemning her appearance, and others seemed upset that Hannah took this long to reveal she has ASD.

Autism