Erin Doherty took up juggling to boost her mental health.
Erin Doherty
The ‘Crown’ actress admitted she took a “dip” at the beginning of lockdown when her career ground to a halt, but keeping busy with a set of balls helped to take her mind off her low mood and gave her a new focus.
She said: "I learned to juggle. It's kept me sane. I just needed to focus on something."
Erin explained how she’d just come off the high of attending the Screen Actors Guild award when everything began to shut down due to coronavirus.
She told Grazia magazine: "We'd just finished filming the fourth season the week before everything shut down.
"The brakes got put on everything and my mental health did dip. As an actor, I didn't have a purpose. I'd gone from zero to 200 miles per hour and then back to zero.
"I glimpsed red carpet life and then it was gone again.
"To sit in my own thoughts was a difficult process at first, because you tune in with where your body and your mind and your soul and your spirit are.
“Part of that process is going, 'Right, I really need to look at this because I don't feel happy about that' or 'I really haven't addressed these issues that may have been there since childhood.'"
And the 28-year-old star is now adjusting to the fact she’ll no longer be playing Princess Anne in ‘The Crown’.
She said: “It’s the biggest shock. I said it out lout for the first time only a few weeks ago. I had the breakthrough of my body and brain connecting that I'm not going to play this woman any longer.
"I realised I had to let go of her. It's a sad thing.”
Though Erin feels “weird” about someone else taking over the role for the next two seasons, she’s “genuinely excited” to watch the show again.
She said: "I feel really weird about it.
"But I'm genuinely excited to watch someone else do it.
"I want to watch the show. I haven't been able to watch it for two years now, because I just can't watch me.
"I'm excited to hand over the wonderful gift that is Princess Anne and let someone else roll with it."