Sherlock actor tells of trying to take his life
RUPERT Graves, the Sherlock actor, has told how he tried to end his life when he was a teenager after he experienced a “deep depression”.
The 57-year-old recounted how he took an overdose at the age of 15.
Graves, who stars in the Sky drama Riviera, said he hid the incident from his classmates after taking three days off school.
Mr Graves, who grew up in Weston-super-mare, Somerset, said he wished he could go back and advise his younger self never to give up.
“I wasn’t the happiest teenager,” he told The Big Issue. “I was very hyper and probably a bit bipolar at that age. I struggled with deep depression and also had these highs.”
He said that around girls in his teenage years, he felt he looked like a “fumbling, bighanded, big- footed, misshapen-headed monster”.
Speaking of the attempt to take his life, Graves said: “When I was about 15 I took an overdose of pills to try to die. I remember my senses closing down. I heard the flush of the toilet but it was like a dream.
“I had a thought of, ‘I really think I’ve gone, I think I’m going to die. And I’m not even sure I want to die’. Then I vomited so much I knocked myself out.”
Graves left school with no qualifications but found fame in the Academy Award-winning film A Room with a View in 1985.
“If I could go back to just before I took the pills I’d probably just sit down and hold my younger self ’s hand and say, listen, I can help you through this,” he said.
“It will pass. And while you’re waiting for it to pass, just try to be kind to yourself and hyper-aware of what’s happening.”