AIBU in not being able to watch certain actors anymore?

[DriftwoodOnTheShore]

I'm not mentioning any names but there are a few actors/actresses who have had mental health problems in the last few years.

Some of them are great favourites of mine but I cannot bring myself to watch the repeats of my favourite shows/films or anything new they are in. I feel sad as soon as they appear and have to turn over.

DH thinks I'm potty, am I?

Yes.

Do you feel sadness for them, as though their work may have contributed to their illness? I can understand this, although it's most likely that their success at work has helped them with self esteem and a pattern of work (getting up, having to do things) could have helped too.

I understand why you might feel like this but I don't think you need to turn over when you see them.

I do feel so sad for them and wonder if the difficulties started at the time of the show. It isn't all actors with problems just a few that I really like a lot.

There are actors and other performers that I just can’t watch because I’ve found out they are nasty in real life.
lawrence Fox, most of the young Harry Potter cast, Sarah Pascoe and James Corden spring to mind.

You can choose to watch whoever you want. If it means that you can't concentrate on the storyline then I can understand why you don't want to watch them.

I won't be watching Will Smith again but that's not for the reasons you've mentioned.

There are actors/actresses I find annoying on interviews or real life tv that annoys me so I can find it hard to watch acting

But no I dont get where you are coming and don't want to say it's odd but yeah odd to me anyway

Imagine if you applied that train of thought to musicians! We’d live in a world of silence.

it’s great that anyone in the public eye talks about mental health, and in particular their own struggles. But you don’t need to take it to heart!

I don't think it's unreasonable if a particular actor distracts you from the story.

There are a few people I feel that way about, I just dislike them, sometimes pretty irrationally. And I keep thinking "what a twat" in anything they are in.

I will say I think it's more of a factor for people who aren't very good actors.

As far as mental health, I don't know that it's bothered me a lot, though I do remember watching The Umbrella Academy and just thinking how awfully unhealthy Page looked all the time, and it felt a bit disturbing in light of events that followed (I didn't see it until after said events.)

Not mental health related (strictly speaking) but Prunella Scales fills me with a sad joy. What has happened is so sad, but the love that Timothy has for her is amazing.

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11468473/Timothy-West-reveals-wife-Prunella-Scales-enjoying-life-Alzheimers-diagnosis.html

You thinking about Sheridan Smith?

I agree about Prunella, I can still watch her and feel the love as well as empathy. I can more easily watch actors I dislike as people than I can those I feel so sorry for.

@SuspiciousBanana Funnily enough I can listen to music without feeling the pain. Even though I know musicians have suffered. I think I can't bear to see faces and try to read what's going on.

@MagpiePi what has Sara Pascoe done? I love her.

Haha same.

Can’t watch Laurence Fox or Kevin Spacey.

watching Honeysuckle Weeks makes me feel a bit sad.

Whats Sarah Pascoe like?

I never take to her on telly and she's not funny

@MrsSkylerWhite Nail on the head there. She's what made me start this thread.

I can't watch anything with Kevin Spacey, Robert Downey Jr or Stephen Fry in it anymore. Robin Williams stuff is uncomfortable too. Fortunately between them the only things that I ever genuinely thought were good were American Beauty and Good Morning Vietnam.

It's not potty. What I might hear is that your empathy for them - how you feel what you think their feelings might be, WITH them - might make you feel helpless and distressed, so in your head it gets coded as a threat. It's overwhelming.
Maybe irl you find other people's distress very activating?
If you can't soothe it or change it or laugh them out of it, it kills you.
It's an entanglement. You don't feel separate.
The big things to do are 1. come into more of a compassionate place. Compassion for the other. Compassion is separate, and it doesn't mean taking on the pain. You're with them, but you're not muddled up with them.

1. Compassion for yourself, because it's hard to hold that side with people who suffer, and to hear them. It just is.
2. Try and do a little remembering. When did you first notice this in yourself? Were there people in your life who made their suffering everyone else's business but their own? This might go way back.

Or this might not be relevant to you, but I'm sure some people reading can take this to heart.

The empathy isn't wrong. Allow yourself a little of the empathy, and then let yourself see yourself gently sending compassion to send and other instead.

Watching Robin Williams makes me sad , with what we know now it makes me feel he was masking so much pain .

Related but different;

I regret going to see Britney Spears perform live a few years ago. In retrospect, I was paying to prop up a cynical record company/promoter cash-grab and the exploitation of a woman who really, really didn't want to be there at all.

On a similar note, there are certain actors I associate so strongly with a particular role that I struggle to see them in anything else. Jamie Dornan is a case in point. His character was so brain-meltingly evil in The Fall that I can't escape seeing his Paul Spector character creeping around strange women's houses anytime I see him in anything else.

@Crackof Thank you so much. That really makes sense. Something to think about.