Oprah Winfrey revealed to Access Hollywood that she suffered from the symptoms of a nervous breakdown while filming her role in “The Butler”. Playing a really involved role such as that one and dealing with her own struggling network almost did her in. Oprah said she realized her emotions were on overload while she was interviewing Jason Russell of the Kony 2012 movement. Russell suffered a nervous breakdown in which he was arrested for running naked through the streets of San Diego. Watch the interview:
“I was sitting and listening to Jason Russell describe his symptom … Saying, ‘Um, this sounds pretty familiar to me,’ ” Winfrey said. “In the beginning, it was just sort of speeding and a kind of numbness and going from one thing to the next thing to the next thing. I will tell you when I realized that I thought, ‘All right, if I don’t calm down I’m gonna be in serious trouble.’ I was in the middle of doing voiceovers, you know? And I remember closing my eyes in between each page because looking at the page and the words at the same time was too much stimulation for my brain,” she added.
“I mean, I wasn’t ready to go run naked in the streets. Let’s make that very clear,” Winfrey said. “But I had reached a point where I just couldn’t take in anymore stimulation. Ok? That’s what I meant by that.”
She was also getting ready (and getting nervous) to launch a new show on her network starring none other than Lindsay Lohan.
“I went to her house just to say, ‘What are you doing? Let’s get real here.’ And… ‘This is what’s conflicting about it.’ Because it’s television and we stand to gain if it does well. But the real truth is – and anybody who knows me, certainly my producers on the way there – Sheri Salata was in the car – I said, ‘If I get here and Lindsay isn’t serious, I will shut this thing down today.’”
That would do it. Just sayin’.
Image via wikipedia
