Category: Mental Health

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Kumail Nanjiani Marvel Mental Health Movies

Kumail Nanjiani ‘shattered’ by Eternals’ reception after signing on for 6 movies

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Marvel’s Eternals came out in 2021. Non-Marvel fans may remember it as the movie that Kamail Nanjiani got super buff for. It was a part of the MCU’s Phase 4, which kicked off with Black Widow and continued with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Marvel was really feeling itself during this time period because all four of these movies and five television series were released in 2021, with three more movies and three more series coming out in 2022. It was the beginning of Marvel Fatigue.

In addition to Nanjiani, Eternals had a huge cast full of well-known actors like Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, and Kit Harington. The only Eternals tie-in we’ve gotten in the 11 movies that have followed it was a plot point in Captain America: Brave New World, with no Eternals appearances. The movie has been basically abandoned, which is interesting because according to Kumail, there were big plans for the Eternals characters, but in the aftermath of its poor reception, everything got scrapped. He signed on for six movies and was really excited about entering his Marvel Era. When none of it came to fruition, he was left “shattered.”

It took until this year for Captain America: Brave New World to finally address the half-risen Celestial in the room, but that’s honestly the closest the MCU has come to acknowledging the events of Eternals. It’s hardly a surprise, really. In the post-Avengers: Endgame era, the movie was the first major misfire from Marvel Studios that, according to one of its stars, had a whole blueprint mapped out that never came to fruition.

During an appearance on the Working It Out podcast, Nanjiani revealed just how much he’d committed to before the film’s release, and the shock he experienced when it didn’t receive the warm welcome like the other MCU movies that predated it. “It came out, it got really bad reviews, and it didn’t do that well. It shattered me too much,” the actor who played Kingo confessed. “That was when I was like, ‘Oh, I need to go to therapy to figure this out.’”

The film earned one of the worst scores on Rotten Tomatoes at 47%, etching ahead of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania which sits at the bottom of the pile. For Nanjiani, it wasn’t what he expected at all. “I was like, ‘This is going to be my job for the next ten years.’ I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign on for all this stuff. You’re like, ‘Okay, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year, and in between, I’ll do my own little things. Whatever I want to do.’”

[From Games Radar]

Kumail has been pretty open about how devastated he was after Eternals failed to go anywhere. I think he’s a real-life super hero for putting it out there that he was so disappointed about the professional failure that he went into therapy. I’ve always appreciated his honesty and felt badly about how he got a raw deal. Up until that point, every Marvel movie had led to multiple opportunities to reappear in different ways within the franchise. It’s not his fault, though. Eternals was fine, but it was also too long with a lot of plot holes and too many storylines. I think the MCU burned bright and fast, and execs realized that they needed to cut costs, so eliminating a cast of people who automatically commanded a higher pay was probably a no-brainer for them.

Also, I recently rewatched Shang-Chi and it was just as much fun as I remembered. Simu Liu is a delight. While there are supposedly still plans for a second movie, nothing is concrete right now. Marvel really did do a huge disservice to the new characters it was trying to bring into the fold.

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photos credit: Backgrid, Cat Morley/Avalon, Getty and via Instagram

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Bill Hader Mental Health Saturday Night Live SNL

Bill Hader skipped SNL 50 because an anxiety sketch hit too close to home

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Earlier this year, Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th birthday with a special live episode featuring cast members and hosts. Stars like Will Ferrell & Ana Gasteyer, Adam Sandler, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Tom Hanks, and more took part. It was a really fun weekend for SNL fans.

Bill Hader was not at any of the SNL50 festivities. People noticed and noted that he’d been outspoken about his difficulties on the show. Bill’s rep said that he had a “scheduling conflict” while Puck got a quote about how he’d politely declined it. Most people just accepted that Bill was busy with other projects and moved on. As it turns out, Bill’s rep wasn’t being truthful. He *was* asked to participate in Andy Sandberg’s digital short about pre-show jitters. However, he turned it down because – ironically – he was too anxious to do it.

Between the concert on Feb. 14 and the special episode on Feb. 16, pretty much everyone who’s ever been on SNL or hosted it in its history showed up to celebrate. Guests included the likes of Robert De Niro, Kim Kardashian, Will Ferrell, Scarlett Johansson, Keke Palmer, Lady Gaga, Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal, Pedro Pascal, David Letterman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Drew Barrymore, Meryl Streep, Seth Meyers, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bad Bunny, Chris Rock, Jon Hamm, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Paul McCartney, and Tom Hanks. Like, I’m not sure more famous people have ever been in the same room, ever.

And while there were A-listers in abundance, viewers couldn’t help but notice the absence of a couple of the show’s most beloved alumni, including Bill Hader, who was an SNL cast member from 2005 to 2013.

As even casual SNL viewers will know, Bill is behind some of the show’s most iconic sketches, and so, fans were incredibly disappointed to see that he was one of the only former cast members not to make a comeback for the 50th anniversary.

“Ok not gonna lie, it feels wrong watching the SNL 50th anniversary without Bill Hader,” one X post read at the time.

“This show had everything. Except Bill Hader’s Stefon,” added someone else, referring to his iconic recurring character on the show.

“Nah, how are you going to celebrate SNL 50 weekend update without Stefon. That’s a crime. Where tf is Bill Hader,” echoed another user.

At the time, the intrigue surrounding Bill’s absence was so widespread that his representative spoke out, telling Variety he was unable to make it due to a “longstanding scheduling conflict.” And now, Bill has addressed the matter himself, revealing that his lack of involvement was down to something a little more personal.

Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Tuesday, Bill explained to his fellow SNL alum that he was invited to take part in a short with Andy Samberg, but turned it down due to his struggles with anxiety — which was ironic, because the sketch was all about how “everybody had anxiety at SNL.”

“Andy called me and was like, ‘Hey, so we’re doing this short about how, you know, everybody had anxiety.’ And when he told about it, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do that,’” he recalled. “And he was like, ‘Why?’ and I was like, ‘Because I’m anxious!’”

Andy’s “Anxiety” short went ahead anyway with Bowen Yang in Bill’s place, and it seems he has no regrets about how things played out. “I was like, really shaky and everything,” he told Seth. “I was really anxious.”

[From Buzzfeed]

I’m really sorry that Bill deals with such terrible anxiety. As someone who also suffers from anxiety, I relate and sympathize with him. I was disappointed to not get a Stefon appearance, but I completely understand and accept that Bill would turn it down for mental health reasons. I bet he felt such a weight off of his shoulders and could breathe/sleep easier once he made that decision to opt out. He’s probably made so many strides over the last several years without being put into that high stress position, so I don’t blame him for not doing it. He made the right call, too. That digital short was fine, but nowhere near on that legendary level as other digital shorts, like the Natalie Portman, Captain Jack Sparrow, or Lazy Sunday ones. Don’t get me wrong; it was entertaining! I’m just saying that if it hit too close to home for Bill, then good for him for knowing his own limits.

Here’s the anxiety sketch that Bill turned down:


photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, Getty and via Instagram and YouTube

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ariana grande Mental Health

Ariana Grande: studios and record labels need to provide talent with therapy

ariana-grande:-studios-and-record-labels-need-to-provide-talent-with-therapy




Ariana Grande is in full Oscars campaign mode. Given her wild wicker basket dress at the Critics Choice Awards this weekend, it looks like she’s having just as much fun as she did during that bonkers Wicked press tour. Ari was on a recent episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. During her appearance, she talked about mental health. Speaking from experience, Ari said that because dealing with fame from a young age can be extremely difficult, studios and record labels should be providing their talent with therapy sessions.

Ariana Grande is advocating for therapy for young stars in both the acting and music worlds, saying that weekly appointments should be built into their contracts.

The Oscar-nominated actor and Grammy-winning pop star — who got her start on Broadway and the Nickelodeon show “Victorious” — opened up to Marc Maron on his “WTF” podcast about having to deal with fame at such a young age, particularly with the media scrutinizing her personal life and body.

“I was 19 when all of that nonsense started happening to me, and it’s just a crazy piece of the puzzle,” she said. “It’s something you work so hard to try and understand, and it will never make sense to me. I just love art and that’s all I care about, so it’s just weird that that’s a part of it … It started when I was so young with my body or rumors about my relationships or about my team or about my mom or about people I love. There was just no limit.”

Grande said the situation was “impossible to navigate,” and that’s why she chooses to speak up about the topic whenever she gets the chance. She’s particularly passionate about therapy, and told Maron she thinks it should be built into the contract of every young star.

“It’s so important that these record labels, these studios, these TV studios, these big production companies make it a part of the contract when you sign on to do something that’s going to change your life in that way, on that scale,” Grande said. “You need a therapist to be seeing several times a week.”

She continued that because the big studios and labels “know how your life is going to change” and have seen how fame can “impact people in a negative way,” they “should be responsible for protecting you from that.”

“When these people are cast in these life-changing roles, or when they get that record deal, when they get that moment, that should be non-negotiable in the contract,” Grande said. “Because to be an artist, you are a vulnerable person with your heart on your sleeve … So the same person who is meant to do art is the exact same person who is not meant to deal with that shit.”

Grande added about her own therapist: “I love her so much. We do great work!”

The star has spoken up about these issues before, telling Penn Badgley’s “Podcrushed” podcast in June that she was “reprocessing” her time on “Victorious.” Though neither Badgley nor Grande specifically mentioned it, the episode aired just a few months after the release of Investigation Discovery’s “Quiet on Set,” which included misconduct allegations against “Victorious” creator Dan Schneider. He has denied the allegations and is pursuing a defamation suit over the documentary.

“A lot of people don’t have the support that they need to get through being a performer at that level at such a young age,” Grande told “Podcrushed.” “The environment just needs to be made a lot safer all around and like I said, I’m still in real time reprocessing my relationship to it.”

[From Variety]

Preach, Ari. I think this is a great idea. Several former child stars have strongly advocated for mental health support and increased protections for stars, including Alyson Stoner (Cheaper by the Dozen and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody) and Ariana’s former Sam & Cat costar, Jenette McCurdy. Labels and studios *should* provide easily accessible mental health support for their talent. Executives and publicists do know how much life is going to change for the actors and artists that hit it big. It’s also difficult for the talent that has a flop or receives a lot of negative reviews. And, of course, there’s the overall trauma of dealing with sketchy, sh-tty people in the biz. I think “impossible to navigate” is a good way to describe it. Hopefully, this topic will reignite now with even more eyes and ears hearing it and lead to some form of meaningful change.

Photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon

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depression Kylie Kelce Mental Health

Kylie Kelce opens up about postpartum depression: ‘I had severe baby blues’

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Kylie Kelce is in the middle of her second trimester of pregnancy. So far, she’s been candid about how miserable she is during pregnancy, the annoying intrusive questions that she gets from people, and the inevitability of a minivan in her future. She’s also pretty open about parenting in general. While appearing on a recent episode of the Sunday Sports Club podcast, Kylie spoke candidly about her experience with postpartum depression after her oldest daughter, Wyatt, five, was born. After she brought Wyatt home, she felt detached from her and struggled to make a connection early on.

The 32-year-old, who is expecting her fourth baby with husband Jason Kelce, revealed that she had an early experience with postpartum depression after welcoming her and Jason’s eldest daughter Wyatt, now 5.

“I have had periods of my life where I truly believe I was experiencing postpartum,” Kylie told Allison Kuch on the Sunday Sports Club podcast Jan. 12. “I know with Wyatt that I had severe baby blues. We left the hospital, and I was like, “So you’re telling me this is mine?’”

The Not Gonna Lie host, who also shares daughters Elliotte, 3, and Bennett, 22 months with the former Philadelphia Eagles player, admitted that it took her baby girl reaching a particular milestone before she felt a sense of ease in motherhood.

“The biggest milestone for me with Wyatt was when she could smile on purpose,” she added. “Because it showed me there was a connection. Most people will take their baby home, and it’s sensationalized social media of, ‘Look at how cute my baby is.’ No my baby cried from bewitching hour at 8 p.m. until 4 a.m. if I wasn’t holding her or if she wasn’t on my boob.”

Quipping about her then-newborn, Kylie added, “We were not cool.”

[From E News Online]

It’s great that Kylie is speaking out about this, especially because she has such a big platform and following now. I also appreciate that she was specific in how she experienced it in the form of not feeling connected with Wyatt. There are so many women out there who feel the same and are beating themselves up over it. According to the National Institute of Health, 1 in 7 women will experience postpartum depression. The more public awareness about these more taboo subjects, the better, so that more women and men understand that PPD is real and shouldn’t just be dismissed as “hormones” or “baby blues.” If anyone out there is experiencing or has experienced it, please know that what you’re experiencing is real and you are not alone. Please talk to your doctor or a health professional about what resources are available in your area.

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Business Mental Health

A four-day workweek could increase productivity, claims advocate

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The pandemic completely shook up how we work. I know people who had been working from home before lockdown, but many companies and workers had to figure out new ways of working remotely, and fast. And largely we did, much to the chagrin of Malcolm Gladwell and Martha Stewart. Now that we’ve lived through having to reformat the work landscape by necessity, there are those who say it’s time to rethink other parts of the system. Like Dale Whelehan, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, whose firm advocates for switching to a four-day workweek, and coaches other companies on how to make the transition. Australia, Europe, and Japan have already started trying it out, and even in the US the number of full-time employees working four-day weeks rose from 5% in 2020 to 8% in 2022, according to Gallup. Whelehan recently spoke to The Associated Press about the 411 of four-day workweeks:

Why should companies make the switch? The bigger question is, why shouldn’t they? There’s a lot of evidence to suggest we need to do something fundamentally different in the way we work. We have issues of burnout. We have a recruitment and retention crisis in many industries. We have increased stress within our workforce, leading to health issues, issues with work-life balance, work-family conflict. We have people sitting in cars for long periods, contributing to a climate crisis. We have certain parts of the population that are able to work longer hours and therefore be rewarded for that, creating further inequity within our societies. Lastly, we look at the implications that stress actually has on long-term health. We know that it’s linked to issues like cardiovascular disease, to cancer, to diabetes. So stress is something not to be taken lightly, and it’s only rising in our world of work.

Industrialization of the workforce brought about the 40-hour workweek: And management, led by Frederick Taylor, was looking at the relationship between fatigue and performance. A lot of scientific studies were done to try to understand that relationship, leading to the need for a five-day week as opposed to a six-day week. By the time I entered into the workforce, we no longer had a very physical, laborious workforce. It’s highly cognitive and highly emotional. The fundamental physiological difference is that our brain as a muscle can’t withstand the same level of hours of work as our muscles in our body might be able to. So it’s that mismatch between an outdated work structure of 40 hours, rooted in very physical labor, and what is now a highly cognitive workforce.

How does all the work still get done? The reduction of working time brings about productivity gains by people having naturally more time to rest and recover, allowing them to come back into a new week more engaged and well-rested. That’s one way in which you see productivity gains. … When we work with organizations, we use what’s called a 100-80-100 principle. So 100% pay for 80% time for 100% output. We ask organizations to design their trials in that sort of philosophy: How can you keep your business at the same level or improve while working less? The fundamental change we see is, let’s move away from thinking about productivity as how much time it takes to get something done, versus focusing on what outcomes we know drive businesses forward.

[From NBC Philadelphia]

This is everything my elementary school-aged self ever dreamed of. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed school. But there was no denying the profound difference between a two-day and three-day weekend. Right now my day job insists requires that I be in the office four days, and then I work from home on the fifth day. Which is not the same thing as Whelehan is proposing! I need a new day job, but I digress… I found the backstory on how we got to the 40-hour week fascinating, as well as Whelehan’s assertion that our brains cannot work a 40-week the same way our bodies used to. You mean it’s not just the brain fog from overeating at lunch?! I love science! I highly recommend reading the whole piece — Whelehan also describes how the four-day week supports women in the workforce (who are often only paid part-time wages for still doing the same amount of work as their full-time colleagues), and he suggests that the biggest office time-sucks are meetings. Amen. I wonder if I can schedule a meeting for him to speak with my boss…



Photos via Instagram and credit: Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Categories
Mental Health Sharon Stone

Sharon Stone: ‘We’re all trying to confront our demons and we’re all acting out’

sharon-stone:-‘we’re-all-trying-to-confront-our-demons-and-we’re-all-acting-out’




Last November US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy was announced as one of the leaders of a commission to study the impact of loneliness on all aspects of our well being. This appointment came on the heels of the World Health Organization (WHO) officially labeling loneliness a global issue. Sharon Stone is also working with WHO as an ambassador on this issue. Sharon, proving once again that she’s hotter than she’s ever been! In all sincerity, she’s an empathic advocate and I love that she’s doing this (especially while Hollywood still fumbles over giving her good parts). Sharon recently sat down with Alex Salmond on his Turkish TV show (Salmond is a former Scottish minister, just go with it) and talked about mental health, resilience, being kind to yourself, and bread baking:

Sharon Stone shared her own struggles with mental health in an emotional interview.

“We’re all trying to confront our demons and we’re all acting out — me too,” the actress, 66, told host Alex Salmond during an appearance on Turkish Tea Talk, a news program in Turkey.

The actress, who skyrocketed to fame in the 1992 thriller Basic Instinct, shared that she still struggles with her memory after suffering a stroke in 2001 that led to a near-fatal brain hemorrhage.

“It’s like the life that was this other person, that you can claim as your life but it doesn’t feel like, ‘Oh I was there, I did that.’”

“I didn’t remember all of it for a very long time, and I still don’t remember all of it,” Stone said, “but I get pieces of it back.”

Stone also talked about her work as an ambassador with the World Health Organization, and said that mental health is a problem “on a global level,” which she linked to the start of the Covid pandemic.

“Covid happened and we shut down the world and you had to be with just you,” the Casino star said. “Now that was great for people who wanted to learn to bake bread — the whole world wanted to learn to bake bread, right? Then people wanted to learn other languages. I wanted to get back to my painting.”

“But for those people who don’t like who they got to be with, one in 10 people on a global level are having a mental problem.”

Stone continued, “One in 10 on a global scale can’t handle that already.”

“The possibility of living with who you are as the only solid… people don’t know who they are.”

The mom of three said that the journey to improve mental health “must start with the individual” being kind to themselves while also having accountability for their actions.

“You must stand strong and when you blow it — okay, so what? That was two steps ago,” Stone said.

“You have to get back up and get yourself together and help whoever you think you bumped around, and keep moving forward.”

And, she added, it’s important to express “instant forgiveness for yourself. Instant forgiveness for whoever shoved you down.”

Then, she said, “Get back up and let’s go.”

[From People]

Not once during the lockdown days of the pandemic did I have the yen to learn how to bake bread or learn a new language. Does that mean there’s something wrong with me? (Don’t answer that). I was in New York for the duration, and it was pretty bleak here in those early months. Even as things changed so rapidly at the beginning, I knew that I could handle being with just me. I’d had a lot of practice at it (stop laughing), and I felt grateful, or lucky even that I had the kind of disposition that would be ok in isolation. Because I knew that wasn’t true for everyone. And what I learned after about two years of not seeing my friends and family in person was how even for me, someone content in her own company, my spirit lit up when with other people.

If you have 26 minutes to spare I highly recommend watching the full interview. Sharon is a trip, and I mean that as the ultimate compliment! She’s fascinating to watch, I think because of the way she straddles that line of “Is she nutty?” or “Is she brilliant?” (The answer is: yes.) The mantra of getting back up is talked about a lot (for good reasons!), but I appreciate Sharon also noting to be kind to yourself, and others, over our stumbles. You’re gonna have some unproofed dough along the way towards mastering your perfect loaf. (At least I think that’s right; I still know nothing about baking bread.)

Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon

Categories
Elmo Larry David Mental Health Wil Wheaton

Will Wheaton responds to Larry David assaulting Elmo: ‘tone deaf a-hole’

will-wheaton-responds-to-larry-david-assaulting-elmo:-‘tone-deaf-a-hole’




Two weeks ago, Elmo caused a stir when he inadvertently started an international conversation about mental health. Elmo tweeted, “How is everyone doing?” It was a simple question that struck a nerve as so many people, including celebrities, the Biden administration, and the rest of the Sesame Street gang, responded to share their feelings. After that, Elmo and his dad appeared on the Today Show to talk about mental health. Things took a bonkers turn when Larry David rushed the stage to assault Elmo, later explaining that he did it because the beloved children’s character was talking about mental health. Instead of apologizing, he told Seth Meyers that he “would do it again.” It was a really immature and sh–ty thing to do.

Actor Wil Wheaton also thought Larry’s behavior was disturbing. Wil made a Facebook post calling out Larry’s actions, reading him for the tone-deaf a-hole that he is. In the post, he pointed out that Elmo is supposed to be a child. He also talked about being a survivor of childhood abuse himself and how important it is to have an open conversation about mental health, especially one that comes from a safe space like Elmo.

“So I heard about Larry David assaulting Elmo on life television but didn’t watch it until now because I knew it would upset me,” Wil began. “Holy shit it’s even worse than I thought. What the f-ck is wrong with that guy? Elmo is, like, the best friend to multiple generations of children. In the Sesame Street universe, ELMO IS A CHILD, who is currently putting mental health and caring for others in the spotlight.”

“And Larry F-cking David … did … that? And thought it was going to be … funny? What? What an asshole. What a stupid, self-centered, tone deaf a–hole.”

“Full disclosure: all the time, when I was growing up, my dad would grab me by the shoulders and shake me while he screamed in my face,” Wheaton shared in his lengthy post. “He choked me more than once.”

“He was always out of control, always in a furious rage, and always terrifying,” Wil continued. “I’m a 51-year-old man, and my heart is pounding right now, recalling how I felt when I was a little boy who loved Grover the way today’s kids love Elmo. I really want to know what raced through his tiny little mind, and why there was no voice or person who spoke up to stop him from expressing violence towards a children’s puppet WHO WAS THERE TO TALK ABOUT HOW HIS LOVE AND EMPATHY FOR PEOPLE HAVING A TOUGH TIME MATTERED AND MADE A DIFFERENCE.”

“Elmo and his dad were there to talk about empathy, love, kindness, and caring for each other,” he continued. “Larry David was there to promote the final (thank god, maybe he’ll go away now) season of a television series. Like, read the room, d-ckhead. It isn’t always about you being the center of attention. A nontrivial number of people who none of us will ever know were inspired by it, and that was the last little nudge they needed to make the call or send the email to being healing,” Wil noted. “Elmo probably saved lives and relationships by opening that conversation.”

[From Buzzfeed]

Some people thought that Wil was being too sensitive while others appreciated that he talked about his trauma and emphasized with him. Shame on the people who made rude comments regarding his openness about his past and willingness to speak out. I’m fully on Team Wil here. Larry was a smug d*ckhead about assaulting a beloved children’s character on live television. And why? Because he was talking about mental health and Larry thought that was annoying. The other day, Kaiser mentioned that Elmo is a learning and an educational tool. Well, now we know that Larry is just a straight up tool.

People mocking Wil Wheaton for being open about his PTSD after Elmo got attacked is exactly why we need a huge overhaul on mental health in this country.

This is why people trauma-dumped on Elmo in the first place, because the rest of you are assholes.#TeamWesley

— Darth Maul-tism, MLIS ????????????‍⬛ (@RogueArtemis) February 8, 2024

Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, JPI Studios/Avalon