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‘Atlanta’ star LaKeith Stanfield has been living with “crippling anxiety” which he used alcohol to self-medicate.
LaKeith Stanfield for GQ (c) Michael Schmelling
The 30-year-old actor began to experience anxiety when he was shooting ‘The Harder They Fall’ in 2020 and also came to the realisation that he had a problem with alcohol, something which was tough to come to terms with.
In an interview with GQ Hype, he said: “This is something I never really had talked about before, but I think it’s something that I need to talk about, because I want people to understand that it’s something that you can get through, that it’s something that you can get past,” he says. “And I want people to feel empowered by the fact that the person they’re looking at on that screen has gone through addiction and survived it.”
The ‘Get Out’ star added that he once got so anxious and overwhelmed while getting a massage that he left in the middle of it, and discussed using alcohol as a way to cope with his mental health struggles.
LaKeith confessed: “All of a sudden, I got so anxious during it that I just got up, cancelled the massage, and told [the masseuse] to leave. And she was probably like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ And I didn’t really know what was happening either. I just thought, I’m anxious, let me just drink some wine. As soon as I drink the wine, the anxiety goes away.”
He added that he had become “completely dependent” upon alcohol to the point where he “wasn’t able to move or function a whole day without having it.”
However, the ‘Someone Great’ star explained that he’s learning to cope in healthier ways after going to rehab.
LaKeith is learning to do what he needs for himself, which sometimes includes sitting down on a red carpet when he gets tired.
He revealed: “The couple times I’ve sat down on [a red] carpet, I was genuinely tired. To be honest, when I’m put in these situations like interviews, photo shoots, I do what makes it fun for me; otherwise it’s banal and inane, and I don’t feel like sitting through that bulls***.
“You have to do it your way, otherwise you get ran by this business and people always telling you who you need to be, pushing you in all these f***ing directions. No, I’m going to do what I want to do for me, and take it or leave it, man. I’m not going to be where you need me to be.”
Read the full story ‘LaKeith Stanfield on Atlanta Season 3, Getting Sober, and Mastering Hollywood’ by Frazier Tharpe on GQ.com.
