Guy Pearce reveals Nick Cave helped him with his depression
Guy Pearce has shared the details of how Nick Cave helped him from the brink of depression and a nervous breakdown. Pearce had starred in The Proposition, a 2005 Western written by Cave. However, four years prior to that, Pearce had “crashed and burned” after an intense period of acting roles.
Discussing his breakdown, Pearce said, “It was a confluence of things. The pressure I started to feel about working in America and the whole making hay while the sun shines philosophy. And, of course, as an actor, you never usually work back-to-back unless, of course, you’re in a soap.”
Pearce did not necessarily notice that he needed a break until it was too late. He continued, “All the time you have off between jobs, it revitalises you. You get to be yourself again and recharge, all that sort of stuff. But you don’t realise that until you start doing movie after movie after movie and you’re fucking exhausted. Plus, I was smoking way too much pot.”
Eventually, the time came for Pearce to take a much-earned break, although it seemed to be too late for the break to resemble anything to do with actually resting. He had become depressed and resorted to getting stoned throughout 2001. However, Nick Cave offered him a lifeline.
“I was at home with my mate, getting stoned again,” Pearce explained. “The phone rang. I just let the answering machine answer it. I wasn’t looking at scripts. Scripts would arrive, and I just put them in a pile in the corner. I’d said to my agent, ‘I don’t fucking want to read anything.’ I wanted to get away from all of this.”
One day, a call came through, which Pearce ignored. But the caller left a vital answerphone message. Pearce said, “Nick rang – I didn’t know Nick – and left a message saying, ‘Er, yes, Guy, it’s Nick Cave calling. Look, your people seem to think that if I call you directly, you’ll perhaps take notice.’”
Cave sent Pearce the script for The Proposition, which got him thinking. He said, “I realised that, in fact, I’d had enough time off, and I’d also had enough time thinking about what I needed to think about. “Which really was: ‘is this valid, this job? Am I any good at it? Am I OK with it? Can I live my life with this job?’” Pearce took the role, and it helped to get him out of his slump and back to doing what he does best.
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