Happy Valley star James Norton says latest role left him 'coughing up tears' during panic attacks
Happy Valley villian James Norton has opened up about the intense emotional impact of his role in a London play, which led to him suffering panic attacks. The 39 year old, who played troubled Tommy Lee-Royce in the ITV trhiller, took on the challenging part of Jude in A Little Life, an adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s novel that deals with trauma and sexual abuse.
He described the role as "the hardest thing I've done", admitting that he overestimated his ability to separate his work and home lives, especially when dealing with such difficult subject matters. "And so, to do the role justice, I gave over my life for six months," he said.
His dedication, however, took a serious toll. "But if the work starts to compromise one’s relationships, it can become unhealthy," he told The Sunday Times this week. "Suddenly you realise you haven’t left any space for other people and so I was pissed off with that. We did the play 180 times."
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Describing the aftermath, James added: "I was a mess," and detailed the emotional breakdowns he experienced: "Having panic attacks. During the first week I watched the Bill Nighy movie Living and started to cry. I was still crying 45 minutes later, coughing up tears. I started resenting the play and I was a catatonic mess."
To cope, he said he would go home and tune into Channel 4's usually feel-good show, Gogglebox. "I’d go home and watch Gogglebox for two hours. I got really confused, and I’d wake up and my first feeling was rage.
"I’d think, ‘Why the f*** am I doing this? ’" Despite the struggles, James said he found a sense of accomplishment at the end but was left "exhausted and hurting", adding: "but months after the show finished I was talking to the producer and said we should do it again."
James initially got his big break back in 2014 when he was cast as hardened criminal Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley, alongside Sarah Lancashire and Siobhan Finneran.
The third and final series of the show ended in February 2023 and producers confirmed there wouldn't be a fourth. The final episode was hailed by viewers as the "best ending of a TV series ever", and involved Tommy setting himself alight after a final confrontation with Sarah Lancashire's character Catherine Cawood.
Taking to social media afterwards to celebrate the performances, one viewer wrote: "Satisfying ending. Brilliantly written. Superbly acted. Best British TV show ever made! #HappyValley" and another added "#HappyValley Perfect ending. Absolute masterpiece. . Hope the show and actors get all the recognition they deserve. British drama at its very very best. X."
