YOU CAN’T CURE ANXIETY SO I LIVE WITH IT
RISING STAR MERCED REVEALS HOW SHE COPES WITH MENTAL-HEALTH ISSUES ON THE SET OF HER NEW FILM
Isabela Merced carries fidget spinners with her wherever she goes because the actor finds it helps with her anxiety to have a distraction. Even in an interview with Insider for her new film, Turtles All The Way Down, she whipped out a couple of the toys as an example of how she handles her own anxiety.
“I just try not to zone out as much,” Merced, 22, says via Zoom, holding the spinners so they’re visible in the camera. “I think what really helps is I have my little fidget toys, I have a small collection of them and it really helps me because it’s either this or I’m clenching half the muscles in my body in an unhealthy way or doing my little scratches.
“For me, personally, it is hard to explain, but I have these rhythms that I try to keep with the muscles in my feet. It’s so weird, but the fidget toys help with distracting me from that.”
She continues about her anxiety: “You can’t solve it. You can’t cure it. That’s also a common misconception; people are like, ‘you’re going to be fine, just manage it’. I am totally fine sometimes; however, it doesn’t happen where it’s like there all the time and it comes up and sometimes it’s worse than others, but also it’s never the same. You can’t ever really prepare yourself for it, because all the components of the things that bring it up may be different each time. So there’s no solid solution.”
You could say Merced, a fast talker, was perfectly cast in drama romance Turtles All The Way Down, streaming from Thursday on Binge. It tells of 16-year-old Aza Holmes (Merced), who struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder and reconnects with her childhood crush, Davis Picket (Aussie Felix Mallard). Turtles, based on John Green’s novel, is Merced’s first adult lead role. She has been acting since childhood, playing CJ Martin in Nickelodeon’s 100 Things To Do Before High School.
Her big feature-film effort came by way of the titular character in Dora and the Lost City of Gold, which was coincidentally shot on the Gold Coast.
“This is my first time (in an adult lead) and I definitely felt the pressure,” Merced says.
“There was definitely a shift. Dora, I was still working like these underage minor hours and doing school at the same time. Now (in Turtles) I had an experience of being in pretty much every scene, except for the flashbacks, which there weren’t too many, so I was on set every day all day. It was my first time having an assistant, which was really cool – she really helped me out. I also brought my dog on set, (chihuahua) Bonbon. You’ll hear some of the cast maybe talk about her, hopefully. You know, she deserves her praise for her work that she did because John Green called her the CNB, which is the Chief Morale Booster.
“I think she deserves her credit. I have so many pictures of her on set working, putting in the hours and I love that.”
There were many tears as Merced felt all the emotions while filming Turtles. Not all of the pressure was a bad thing though, she says. “A lot of times it looked like me just crying and having a breakdown after I get home from work, because I’m not the type of person that when I’m stressed, I show it immediately,” she said.
“If anything, I shut down and then I don’t let it out until I’m alone. I don’t let people really see that unless it’s just in my work. So yeah, I have a lot of pictures of me just, like, tissues stuffed up my nose just crying. There was definitely a stressful time for sure, but it all paid off. And I think that stress was very useful because Aza was going through that so I just applied it.”
Green’s book made its debut on The New York Times bestseller list as a young adult novel.
But Merced says the film is for all ages. “Just because it stars a young adult doesn’t mean that it’s just for a young adult to watch,” she says. “I think my mum, my team, they really loved it, and for different reasons. There’s different relationships that are really taken care of in the script – they really flesh them out so you feel the full importance of them.
“So our friendship, her relationship with her mother, her relationship with her therapist even, and her relationship with Davis, they’re all really well described and I think they can really inform people who might have loves or relationships with someone who is who suffers from OCD and anxiety.”
Co-star Mallard got his start on Aussie TV soap Neighbours.
“He’s so Australian,” Merced says with a laugh. “And the thing is, he did his American accent for the movie and he would stay in it while we were filming. Then when we wrapped and like I’m telling you, it was almost immediately as soon as he wrapped, they pulled out beers and I was 21 at the time, so I could drink. His Australian side really kicked in and we’ve been hanging out ever since, and I just don’t think I can get used to it because my first impression of him was with an American accent. And he loves Australia. He’s a surfer boy, just what a gem of a human being. It was very easy to pretend to be in love with him.”
Turtles All the Way Down premieres on Thursday on Binge, available on Hubbl.