Key Points
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Jeff Garlin opened up about his struggle with undiagnosed bipolar disorder while filming The Goldbergs.
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He admitted that he had a “nervous breakdown” and was experiencing suicidal ideation at the end of his time on the show.
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Garlin left the long-running sitcom in 2021.
Jeff Garlin is opening up about the mental health struggles he faced while filming The Goldbergs.
The 64-year-old revealed that he had a “nervous breakdown” at the end of his tenure on the long-running sitcom, which led him to a dark place. Prior to his breaking point, Garlin admitted that he had a “blowout” on set of The Goldbergs and had tried to negotiate an arrangement where he would only show up to film once a week, which he said caused “resentment” among the cast.
“I had a nervous breakdown and I was going to commit suicide,” he told host Ted Danson on Wednesday’s episode of SiriusXM’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name. “I reached out to Susie [Essman], and I said, ‘I hate when people don’t reach out, but at noon today, I will be dead. I’m letting you know I will be dead.'”
Concerned, Essman then called the Curb Your Enthusiasm actor’s ex-wife Marla Garlin and his girlfriend Sari Tracht to get him help. They enlisted his best friend, Brad Morris, to watch Garlin while the women researched facilities to send him to. Garlin was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
“I went to Cincinnati in the middle of winter, and I learned this thing called DBT, dialectical behavior therapy,” he continued. “I was no longer suicidal. They helped get me to a point where I could stand, and then I went out in the world and it took time between therapy and medication for bipolar all that stuff to where I felt kind of whole.”
Five years later, Garlin shared that he is “just now feeling really good.” However, he wonders how “no one at Sony” could tell that he was struggling with his mental health.
Garlin leftThe Goldbergs in 2021 after staffers reported him to human reable. At the time, Entertainment Weekly had learned that the decision to part ways was mutual
Following the HR complaint, Garlin had pushed back on the allegations.
“My opinion is, I have my process about how I’m funny, in terms of the scene and what I have to do. They feel that it makes for a quote ‘unsafe’ workspace. Now, mind you, my silliness making an unsafe workspace — I don’t understand how that is. And I’m on a comedy show. I am always a kind and thoughtful person,” Garlin, who played patriarch Murray, told Vanity Fair in December 2021.
Garlin previously said that his undiagnosed bipolar disorder caused him to be either “dark,” “happy,” or “mean” on the set of The Goldbergs. He told the Daily Beast’s Obsessedpodcast in September that his onscreen wife Wendi McLendon-Covey, who played Beverly, had tried to reassure him that he was “great on the show.” However, he said the encouragement wasn’t enough to make him stay, which he claims caused “resentment.”
McLendon-Covey later pushed back on his account, saying, “Let’s just say I remember things very differently, as does the crew, the other actors, the writers, and our executives.”
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In his chat with Danson on Wednesday, he mentioned that he cracked the same raunchy jokes on The Goldbergs as he did on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Garlin said his humor was expected on set of the latter show, which allowed him to be “jo he felt “a dark thing” on the ABC sitcom
“With The Goldbergs, I’ll say this,” Garlin said. “I was miserable, and I did not appreciate the wonderful gift I’d been given. That show was a gift. People loved that show. People on the show were lovely, and I was miserable, miserable, miserable.”
Watch the full episode of Where Everybody Knows Your Name above.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
