‘I experience identity crisis to a massive extent’

Ezra Miller feels it is easy to lose the essence of one’s own identity in showbiz. The Fantastic Beasts (2016) star admits he experiences an identity crisis, and says that being in the industry highlights the problem like a “terrifying pimple”.

Miller is back as Credence Barebone, a young introverted man who is also an Obscurus, in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Along with the magic and the beasts, the film is about Credence’s journey to find his own identity, and struggling with it.

Asked if he has identity crisis over being an actor and living someone else’s life on camera, Miller said, “I definitely experience that to a massive extent.”

“I think being someone who professionally participates in the presentation of identity only exacerbates the problems with identification, which we all already have. It kind of brings it forward like a terrifying pimple,” added the actor.

“It reveals what people are going through with their identification to become socalled famous or a celebrated celebrity. And I have experienced that. I went through my wild bouts of experience with that,” he continued, before explaining his way of dealing with the problem.

“The key for me has been that the lesson in martial arts that I received... The open hand is more powerful. In terms of identity and belief, let go. Like your attachment to the things in the world.

You don’t have to be so attached to them to love them,” he said.

Hailing from New Jersey, USA, Miller has also been part of projects like The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) and Suicide Squad (2016).

PHOTO: AFP Ezra Miller