Sharon Horgan reveals why her crime thriller obsession almost went too far
We all love a good crime thriller, don't we? But while on Louis Theroux's podcast, The Louis Theroux Podcast, actor Sharon Horgan spoke all about her struggles with mental health and revealed how watching crime thrillers as research for the show Bad Sisters became an obsession that almost went too far.
She confessed to Theroux, "I got really into true crime and I allowed it because I was like, this is research, you know, I'd never written a thriller before or anything around a murder or any kind of cop story. And so I felt I was fully justified in watching and listening to terrible stories about women killing their husbands."
Like so many of us, she was hooked by the gripping stories, but she went a step too far when she realised she could only be sated by that kind of content.
"I could only fall asleep if I was listening to, you know, a story about some brutal murder in my ears and I had to get out of it", she said.
Horgan's whole world had become tales of murder, immersing herself so deeply in the subject matter in the name of research out of fear she would would mishandle such a delicate subject matter when writing the show.
The actor and producer surrounded herself with so much true crime because "the thought of getting it wrong or the thought of someone watching and thinking we're taking the p*** [out of murder]" would "would keep me awake at night," she revealed.
While Sharon Horgan may no longer go to sleep to true crime audiobooks, she has admitted that she still finds herself drawn to a good crime drama– and with so many brilliant ones to recommend, we can understand why.
During the podcast, the actor also opened up about her battle with anxiety and the physical toll it's taken on her, often leaving her sweating and her heart pounding out of control. "When you have an increased heart rate, and when all those things start happening to you physically, that's when you kind of step outside of yourself, because you're telling yourself to calm down, you're telling yourself to be less nervous, and you're kind of like admonishing yourself. And all that is making you feel a bit disembodied," she said.
She went on to explain how going to therapy has helped her manage the anxiety and taking beta blockers has been life-changing for calming her nerves: "They do something very practical physically, but I think the sort of mental stuff that goes with it," she said. "It has had a real calming effect on me and in situations that would normally kind of terrify me."
Situations, she shared, such as presenting at the Critics Choice Awards last year. Her anxiety around such events might come as a surprise for many of her fans as the actor and producer has been nominated and received several awards for her body of work. From the critically acclaimed comedy series Catastrophe which she co-created with Rob Delaney, to winning a BAFTA for her writing on Motherland and being the brains behind Apple TV's Bad Sisters.
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