Amanda seyfried admitted that she suffers from a mental disorder. How to combine several careers without prejudice to the case Zhanna juror

“I'm always worried about people and how they use stoves,” the actress told Allure journalist David DeNicolo, whom she invited to her recently renovated home.

In an interview in the November issue, the star reveals that she has been suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder since the age of 19. This mental illness, a syndrome of obsessive states, when a person has obsessions - involuntary obsessive thoughts, from which he tries to get rid of with the help of the same obsessive actions - compulsions.

One of Amanda's obsessive fears is having stoves turned on. “You can easily burn something if you leave the stove on. Or an oven." And during the debut of the disease, Amanda convinced herself that she had a brain tumor. However, after the MRI, the doctor sent her not to an oncologist, but to a psychiatrist.

For 11 years, Seyfried has been taking an antidepressant - in the smallest dose. And he doesn't plan to give it up.

Amanda believes that most people view mental illness differently than other illnesses, and that it's time to change that. The suffering of people with mental disorders is no less serious than physical illness but it is not customary to talk about them openly. No one tells how, who encountered such a problem. In this context, the recognition of a popular actress is especially valuable and makes you think about the problem.

Zhanna Prisyazhnaya, a celebrity interviewer and unit publicist who spoke with Amanda, explains that OCD symptoms are not something that strikes strangers.

“The news that Amanda Seyfried has OCD did not surprise me - many people have obsessive-compulsive disorder, but only “home” people can know about it. When I interviewed the actress, of course, no external signs did not have. I would be very surprised if she got up in the middle of a conversation and went to wash her hands. Or she would be afraid to step over the threshold of the room. OCD is a common condition, I have it too, but at a certain stage it is controlled by the person himself.

For example, I cannot leave the house for half an hour, sometimes for an hour - I double-check if the door is closed. And just like Amanda, my obsession is the stoves on.

I have always had OCD to one degree or another. So, it seemed to me that I had to do specific procedures in order to pass the exam.

And the disease manifested itself in the 7th grade, when my mother forgot to turn off the stove at night, and we woke up, and the apartment was in methane. Scared terribly.

What is OCD, I, oddly enough, understood from the films. I never thought before that my habit of pulling the door 100 times, saying out loud that the stove is off, is an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

When I moved to New York and began renting apartments with my neighbors, the problem got worse. Closed doors and turned off burners just haunted me.

Now, for example, I live with a rather carefree girl. Once I came, and the keys were in the door. She also loves candles. And in fact, he often forgets to pay them off. Once, in the middle of a press screening, I was shaking at the thought that there was a burning candle at home. She broke and ran.

I was lucky, I have a mild form, which I can more or less cope with. I can’t help myself and run away from work, dates or important events in order to make sure the doors are locked, about once a year. I do not drink antidepressants, although in America they are prescribed as vitamins.

It seems that my condition does not greatly complicate the lives of friends. On the contrary: with me you can be sure that the door is closed and the stove is off.

At the same time, if your loved one there is something like that, no need to get annoyed or pretend that the problem does not exist. For example, I came up with a “spell” for myself. As I leave, I check the stove and say “op-op-op-op”, that’s right, four times. So, everything is in order, it is off. It is not worth laughing at the ways that your comrades invent to cope. I also always ask my friends to make sure with me that everything is closed and turned off if we leave the house together. It doesn't cost you anything, but it's easier for me. And if the horror breaks through when I'm far from home, the calm confidence of the person next to me that nothing bad will happen also helps.

Smoking, alcohol, and stress increase OCD. If I have a difficult period, how to drink, I will spend more time near the door. Therefore, I am learning to cope with emotions and, moreover, not to relieve tension with alcohol. So OCD, in a sense, contributes healthy lifestyle life."

Photo: Allure, Ted 2

Author

Olena Islamkina

My name is Olena, and I am the leader of the keto sect. Self-proclaimed, of course. She is also a journalist and biohacker. In 2012, I accidentally discovered a keto diet for myself and suddenly lost a few extra pounds, got rid of migraines, allergies and acne, became energetic and productive, balanced and happy .. But the topic of the ketogenic diet quickly replaced vaccinations, GMOs and exercise from my blog for strong buttocks, and I myself completed several courses and became a specialist in keto nutrition. I really want as many people as possible to know that healthy food should be delicious. A tasty food can be a medicine and a biohacking tool. Because healthy lifestyle is not what it seems.

Zhanna Prizhnaya in New York. Photo: Alena Adamson

NY

+ New York really has everything - the ocean, little Italy, big Odessa, giant China, fleeting Korea, compact Brazil and vast Jamaica. The natives of the city rarely leave it - and why, when almost the whole world already lives on a small island of Manhattan. For example, my colleague, at the age of 30, has never even been on an airplane - there was no need.

+ Men. Everything that you were shown about men in the series "Sex in big city"and" Girls "- true. Men are indecently good-looking. But here's the problem: it's worth digging closer, and here it is, a freak show. As my friend, a native New Yorker, says, in this city there are two options: you have to be either beautiful or rich - selective approach in business. As a result, my male friends sometimes go on two or three dates a night, for a total of about 10 dates a week, and each with new girl- it's hard to stop here!

+ Heels do not belong here - do not believe the films where business New York women run around the city in high heels. They don’t wear them either to the park, or to the airport, or at eight in the morning at rush hour in the subway - rather, on the contrary, it’s easy to identify a girl from Russia by high heels. Thursday afternoon, please.

- The climate in New York is a nightmare for any living creature: in winter, the cold is felt many times stronger due to constant humidity and wind from the ocean, frost penetrates to the very bones. So some weak -4 degrees will seem no easier than Moscow's -20.

- In New York, dogs are loved more than people - they are made more often than partners, friends and children, and they are invested in these "relationships" to the fullest - to get a puppy from a shelter, you will need almost more documents than for adoption child. I don’t want to think about how much vaccinations, leashes and other lotions cost. The trend has even created a profession that, to be honest, pays better than journalism - a dog walker gets up to $40 for a walk. And if you take not one dog, but five at once?

- Disorganization - in New York, it manifests itself in everything. Here, rarely anyone comes to meetings on time, in the subway the crowd moves in different directions, not observing the elementary traffic rules, trains change direction every now and then (just like in Harry Potter), turning from “local” to “express” (sometimes missing past ten stops) and vice versa, sometimes stopping work altogether. The subway in New York is shallow and completely devoid of air conditioning - as a result, it is hot and stuffy on the platform, and, on the contrary, cold in the car. Needless to say, the platform is continually run across by rats in search of food?

- Garbage on the streets. Wrap-around black bags on the sidewalks are a common sight on both Fifth Avenue and Brighton Beach: they are all hauled away daily, but if, God forbid, today is a holiday or a storm, get ready for the black bags to turn into mountains that , of course, become canteens for rats and horse-sized cockroaches. By the way, they can still fly.

- New York is not a city for children: there are no large children's stores left in Manhattan (the legendary Fao Schwartz, where Tom Hanks played the piano in the movie Big, closed last summer, but in the winter the huge Toys4us in Times Square was also closed ) and playgrounds. Children in New York mature much earlier than in other cities - do not be surprised if a 12-year-old girl tells you about art at the level of a gallery owner from Chelsea.

Moscow

+ Plus or minus, decide for yourself: a public display of feelings in broad daylight is the norm here. In Moscow, kissing, hugging and not being shy in the preludes to sex in front of the entire metro is a common thing. In New York, feelings are better hidden - the most you can see is lovers holding hands.

+ The road builders, whom everyone scolds in Moscow, are fondly remembered in New York. As soon as the snow falls, it turns out that the whole city is paralyzed - and if the roads are still somehow cleaned in Manhattan, then in other areas - the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens - snow can lie until spring. So don't scold the utilities - they don't work any better in New York.

+ Do not swear, dear gourmets, but the food in Moscow is much tastier. Whether it's an expensive restaurant or McDonalds, somehow Moscow manages to get around New York at the corner: Big Macs seem bigger, tomatoes are juicier, and kefir is sourer - although maybe I just miss Russia.

+ Friends. In New York, my life divided my friends into categories - Russian friends, friends for drinks after work, friends from work, friends from other work, and friends with whom you can go out of town. It is difficult to combine them and only once a year - for a birthday. In Moscow, I had the same friends for everything. It means "just friends".

- Underpasses - their very existence completely disappeared from my memories, and only a friend who came from New York to Moscow for summer holidays reminded me of them. Climbing up and down every 500 meters - that's what I don't miss at all.

- In Moscow, cash is always needed, while in New York you can live for a long time paying only by card. And lately, it has not been needed either - thanks to Apple Pay, Uber, Seamless (using which you can order food home from any restaurant in New York) and other applications, there is no need to go into your wallet, unless, of course, it is virtual. In Moscow, even in a good restaurant, it may turn out that today, “for technical reasons,” only cash is accepted.

- Shutdown hot water- when 10 days a year you run from the kitchen to the bathroom with ladles, basins, pots and ladles. There is no such thing in New York, but at the same time, many people live without a shower or bath at all - they take a shower in the gym, thus saving on water, shampoos and conditioners: for example, in the expensive Equinox sports clubs, all cosmetics from Kiehl's. My neighbor uses this - she saves on shower gel and shampoo all those two years that we cohabit with her. Plus or minus, decide for yourself who is used to what.

- Minus at the request of friends - there are no raccoons in Moscow. New York is literally teeming with life - not only is there more people on one square meter of Manhattan than bacteria, but also animal world only slightly smaller than the Zoo in Central Park. So, for example, the windows of my previous apartment overlooked the roof of a neighboring building, and every time I hung out for a smoke before going to bed, a raccoon came running and looked at me in the dark. What can we say about squirrels that spread the plague (after a bite here you will definitely get a tetanus injection), and flying red cockroaches. This is not counting cockroaches and bedbugs, to which everyone has long been accustomed. So the minus point about the lack of raccoons in Moscow can be easily transferred to a plus - not all animals living in the city are so cute.

M.C.: Zhanna, let's start from the very beginning: what is a publicist unit?

Zhanna Prizhnaya: So far, unfortunately, I have not found an analogue in Russian for the profession of Unit Publicist. In Russian, the word "publicist" means a journalist or writer who writes about politics and public life. In English, this is a job that can roughly be called "PR on the set." But very rude, because the publicist unit is not just the only journalist on the set, it is the beginning of how the film will be positioned, how and what will be said about it. There are not so many unit of publicists - only about 500 professionals all over the world - this is a very narrow industry. The publicist unit starts work at the pre-production stage - 2-3 weeks before the start of filming, works throughout the entire filming and about a month or more after. He starts to think about who will see the film, what it will be about, interviews the actors, supervises the photographer, prepares materials that will fall into the hands of journalists, studios, distributors around the world and journalists, even prepares materials for the DVD version and of course organizes visits. presses on the set. Often shooting takes place in very unusual places - in the desert in United Arab Emirates, in Cape Town in Africa - but wherever the film crew goes, the publicist unit goes there too.

M.C.: How did you get into this profession?

J.P.: For me, it all started with Marvel. On a journalistic assignment, I first went to the shooting of the film "Ant-Man", where I drew attention to an employee who seemed to know everything, everyone and everything, and very busily cut through the set on a golf cart. After talking with one of the studio's PR people, I managed to find out that he is a publicist unit who worked on almost all Marvel films, including even such ones as Iron Man, The Avengers. In a word, at that moment it started and went - I began to engage in self-education, and on the set, the first thing I did was rush not to world-class stars, but to unit publicists. Already at home, working on press conferences for more than seven years, I increasingly began to pay attention: journalists - both American and international often ask the same questions, and no matter how hard the actors try, they often get the same answers. It was this situation that prompted me to try myself in new area, I wanted to give the actors an opportunity to talk about new things and journalists to ask original questions.

M.C.: It was difficult to switch from working as a journalist to working as a publicist unit, especially after such a track record, which includes interviews for glossy magazines with Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg...

J.P.: But I still haven’t switched ─ I continue to combine both professions, and also work as a PR specialist with several clients during the working week (among them, for example, one of the HBO divisions). There are also financial reasons for this: my journalistic work is either paid very little or not at all, many independent films cannot afford the advice of a PR specialist. But, of course, I will not dissemble - interviews with actors, directors, producers - everything that I do as a journalist - in a certain sense, grows me as a publicist unit. Well, in the end, a dream job is more important than cars-apartments-helicopters-planes.

M.C.: What exactly are you working on right now?

J.P.: Oh, this question falls on, perhaps, the “hottest” time of the year ─ New York Film Festival and New York Comic Con are currently taking place in New York, within which there are quite a lot of interviews and events. So, just this week, Keanu Reeves, Matt Damon, Mila Jovovich, Pedro Almodovar, Kristen Stewart presented their new films and projects - all this information needs to be processed. I am also preparing for a video interview for the state TV channel, writing about one of the events of the Guggenheim Museum and working on reports. I'm also writing production notes for a film I've been working on this summer - while the film is being edited, I'm preparing an almost 100-page "book" about the film, which, along with the "film", will be presented at film festivals in Toronto, Sundance, Venice and New York. York.

M.C.: How does working in the States differ from working in Russia?

J.P.: America, of course, has its own specifics, and it was not easy for me to get used to it. For example, if in Russia I often didn’t want to “stick out” - to sign my texts and interviews, to brag about achievements in in social networks and in general to "unwind" oneself, then here it is a mandatory "procedure" - one cannot be in the shadows, be shy and be unsure of oneself.

M.C.: How does your working day look like?

J.P.: Sometimes it seems that my working day is not interrupted - I wake up at 6-7 in the morning and the first thing I do is check my mail and all kinds of instant messengers - Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp. During the night, quite a lot of letters fall from Moscow, so for the first half hour I work literally without getting out of bed - I answer letters, send out "pitches", communicate with many colleagues on Facebook - this saves time, an electronic mailbox obliges me to a certain written etiquette , I prefer to solve work issues in an informal setting.

M.C.: Is there a specific dress code in your profession?

J.P.: The traditional public prefers black - primarily for utilitarian purposes: if in the morning I packed gift bags, in the afternoon I threw protein bars into myself with one hand, and frantically typed letters with the other, then carried the boxes from side to side - traces of such working adventures are always black. will hide. But for filmmakers, there are rules - navy blue jeans, a shirt and jacket, and closed-toe shoes - anything can happen on the set, and there is no place for sandals. For me, for example, after working in fashion magazines, sometimes it's a relief - you can finally relax. Nevertheless, no, no, yes, colleagues will tell me that I am overdressed - but what can I do, I love my “fashionable” past.

M.S.: The profession of a publicist is now predominantly male, is there a place for a woman in it?

J.P.: More than - no offense to men, but women are often more creative, diplomatic and hardy, and these qualities are necessary in the work of a publicist unit. Yes, there are disadvantages in the profession - you have to travel a lot and sometimes live in field conditions, work after hours, face sexism, but I believe that everything is possible if you want. For example, improve your skills online courses in between filming, or having children and raising them on the set, in the end, at the end of almost every film, the entire film crew, whether it be a hundred people or a thousand, becomes your family!