Aubrey Plaza opens up about her battle with grief following husband’s death: “A daily struggle”
Aubrey Plaza has opened up about her “daily struggle” with grief since the passing of her husband from suicide in January.
In a new interview, Plaza detailed her experience of the past seven months after losing her husband, Jeff Baena, in January. “Right in this very present moment, I feel happy to be with you,” she told Parks and Recreation co-star Amy Poehler.
She added, “Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning and really grateful to be moving through the world. I’m OK but, you know, it’s like a daily struggle, obviously.”
Ever the actor, Plaza turned to a film analogy to help describe her struggle, though she chose an odd movie to reference. “This is a really dumb analogy,” She warned, “it was a joke at a certain point but I kind of mean it – have you seen the film The Gorge? It’s like an alien movie with Miles Teller.”
The White Lotus star explained, “In the movie, there’s a cliff on one side and a cliff on the other side and a gorge in between, which is filled with other people who are trying to get there.” Reflecting on this all-encompassing abyss, she insisted, “That’s what my grief is like.”
Plaza began dating Baena in 2011. The couple married a decade later. At the time of his passing, Plaza said, via The Independent, “This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.”
Now, she gives more colour to those words. “There’s like a giant ocean of awfulness that’s right there and I see it and at some point, I just want to dive into it and be in it,” she explained. “Sometimes I look at it. Sometimes I wanna get away from it. But it’s just always there and the monster people are trying to get me.”
Her husband was also in the film industry, receiving recognition for co-writing the 2004 film I Heart Huckabees with David O’Russell. He received a Gotham Award nomination for Best Feature for his work.
Plaza will next hit the big screens in Ethan Coen’s crime comedy Honey Don’t!, alongside Margaret Qualley and Chris Evans, which will release in UK cinemas on September 5th.
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