NO matter who we are, there are many of us who are healing from trauma, and it’s the same for celebrities too. In recent years, we’ve seen a shift in the way people view and talk about mental health, with more public figures choosing to speak candidly about their struggles with mental illness.
Recently, House of the Dragon actress Olivia Cooke opened up about her mental health during an interview with the Observer. She spoke about her struggles with loneliness while filming the A&E series Bates Motel, a psychological horror series focusing on the fictional serial killer Norman Bates.
Cooke worked for five seasons on Bates Motel from 2013 to 2018, starring as Emma Decody, a quirky and pretty girl with cystic fibrosis, who developed feelings for Bates, played by Freddie Highmore.
During 10 years as an actor, Cooke has built a career of remarkably diverse roles. She was only 20 when she was called to Canada to work on Bates Motel. Now 28, the British actress shared that she experienced a “full mental breakdown” in 2016.
“I’m so grateful for that job, but I had a really tough time on it,” says Cooke. “The way the schedule worked, we all had different storylines, so a lot of my time was spent in this apartment in Vancouver, working once every two weeks.”
Isolated and far from home, Cooke fell into depression. “It was a big old lovely cocktail: being homesick and not knowing it, having not stopped (acting) since I was 18, being on my own for large swathes of time.”
Luckily, Cooke’s mental health got better with time. In 2019, she started to have consecutive days free from “the incessant, persistent, anxious thoughts”.
These days, Cooke says she’s found herself in a “sweet spot” – something she credits to her new TV gig.
Cooke can be seen on HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, where plays Alicent Hightower, wife to King Viserys I Targaryen from episode six onwards. House of the Dragon is currently airing on HBO Go.
