Interview, Fireside Chat
David Harewood: The Chilling Story Of How A Hollywood Star Lost His Mind | E185
- David Harewood, the first Black actor to play a lead role in a major US drama, suffered a psychotic break at age 23, during which he heard a voice claiming to be Martin Luther King Jr.
- The voice instructed him to travel to Camden at 3:00 AM, purchase a suit, and "sacrifice himself" to close the gap between good and evil, resulting in his involuntary sectioning.
- Following the incident, Harewood was taken into police custody, spent time in a cell, and appeared in magistrate court without recognizing his own name until reminded of his childhood role as Romeo.
- His mental health crisis was precipitated by a combination of factors, including severe professional hostility from critics and the public regarding his race, lack of sleep, and self-medication through alcohol and smoking.
- Harewood revealed that his father, a quiet man who worked as a long-distance lorry driver, was sectioned in his early teens after writing the single word "illness" on his typewriter, a trauma Harewood did not fully process until researching his father's medical history decades later.
- He attributes his father's and his own mental health struggles to the specific psychological toll of being a Black man in a "white space" in Britain, citing systemic racism, social rejection, and the pressure of assimilation during the Windrush generation era.
- Harewood describes a childhood marked by racial hostility, including an incident where a brick was thrown through his family home window and another where he was subjected to a chorus of racial slurs at a Leeds United football match.
- He notes that his breakdown served as a necessary "house coming down" to dismantle the false identity and "naive" self-image formed in an environment that erased Black cultural identity.
- Upon recovery, Harewood utilized acting as a therapeutic escape, noting that while he feels confident and "free" on stage playing defined characters, real life remains unpredictable and filled with contradictions.
- In 2017, Harewood accidentally went public with his mental health history via a tweet, which generated 50,000 retweets and triggered a wave of calls from media outlets and personal stories from strangers.
- The release of his 2019 documentary on psychosis led to a period of intense emotional vulnerability but ultimately helped destigmatize mental health issues, particularly regarding the criminalization of Black men in crisis.
- Harewood discovered that during his initial sectioning, he was administered three times the standard legal dose of tranquilizers, a practice he suspects was due to systemic bias against "big Black men" by medical staff.
- He has transitioned from fearing his public narrative to embracing his role as an inspiration, noting that his openness encourages others to seek help and that he now finds joy in creating his own work through his production company.
- Harewood's career versatility is attributed to his ability to "be water," adapting his persona and accent to avoid being typecast solely as a "Black actor," a constraint he faced early in his career at drama school.
- He advises young people to prepare for hardship, emphasizing that resilience is built through failure and that one must control their reaction to events they cannot change.
- Harewood's stated personal legacy is to "crack open the universe" by serving as an example for future generations, aiming to open doors for Black actors and inspire confidence in young people who look up to him.
- Currently, despite a recent hiatus from leading dramatic roles in the US, he is actively producing documentaries and dramas, focusing on creating complex, original work rather than waiting for industry offers.