In 1995 Winger decided to take a hiatus from acting. In 2002 she said, "I wanted out for years. I got sick of hearing myself say I wanted to quit. It's like opening an interview with 'I hate interviews!' Well, get out! I stopped reading scripts and stopped caring. People said, 'We miss you so much.' But in the last six years, tell me a film that I should have been in. The few I can think of, the actress was so perfect". After making "Forget Paris" in 1995 she was absent from the screen for six years before returning in 2001 with "Big Bad Love", written and directed by her husband, Arliss Howard, and also marking Winger's debut as a producer.