Obviously, encountering fame at such a young age can be really difficult — and in a recent interview with GQ, Finn shared his own mental health struggles while growing up in the spotlight.
Finn — who is currently 20 years old — said that, after several years where he didn’t “talk about anything,” he started experiencing regular panic attacks around 15 or 16 years old.
“Everyone was like, ‘Look at him, he’s fine. He’s having the best time,’” he recalled about how he tried to keep his mental health issues secret while he was filming.
“But in reality, I was probably also developing and things were happening in my brain and anxieties were forming and things that I didn’t realize that I had to bury because of how I had to feel at work.”
Finn stars in Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut When You Finish Saving the World, which was just released last month — and in the interview, he also said he experienced a panic attack during filming.
“I was so uptight and nervous about it because I just was like, ‘This is the first movie [that I’m doing] as an adult,’” he explained.
Finn said that Jesse shared his own experiences with panic attacks while filming Adventureland, and in general, it’s always good to talk about how you’re feeling — it’s how you can get the help you need from those around you, too.
Read the entire interview here.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-888-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
