Actress Daisy Edgar-Jones, best known for playing Marianne in Normal People (which American viewers have started watching with subtitles), has opened up about her anxiety, hypochondria and facing rejection.
In her appearance on Elizabeth Day's How To Fail podcast, the rising star gave a candid insight into the pressures of auditions and the impact that the process had on her mental health. Daisy shared that part of the reason she became so anxious after losing out on a role was because she'd made the decision not to attend university, in favour of following her ambition to act.
"When I left school I got quite good A-levels, and I really thought about going [to university]," she told Elizabeth. "I did apply to a few places and got in, but I'd had an agent since I was 16... so I thought I'd give it a year to see if I could maybe get something. It's so difficult because it's never guaranteed."
Explaining how difficult it was for her to break into the industry, Daisy said, "By the end of the year I'd gotten another couple of small parts but nothing like Normal People, so I thought I'd keep trying.
"It's like dating, it's heartbreaking [when you lose out at an audition] and there's the odd one that's really hard to get over and sometimes when I didn't get those parts I'd spiral into doubts about whether I should go to university."
As well as this, Daisy opened up about how her anxiety also lead her to become concerned with her health. "I auditioned and I got close and I found that very anxiety making and I really struggled for a while. When I feel anxious it comes out in different ways from me and one of the ways is hypochondria."
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Like many with the condition, Daisy said she would do things like repeatedly Google symptoms. "It comes in waves, I've had it for a while. It's my way of dealing with anxiety, it comes out in a need to control... If I saw a rash for example, if I really overthink that and Google the heck out of it, then I'm controlling it in some way.
"[I think] if I find out it's sinister, I've caught it before it becomes something worse and I'd become quite obsessive." She also described a time she feared she'd had an allergic reaction to mouthwash and praised her boyfriend for helping to calm her down.
People who suffer with health anxiety often report obsessing over bodily functions such as their heartbeat or physical discomfort e.g. headaches or stomach aches. They can also fixate on a specific organ or an illness they've read about or seen on TV. Those thoughts can then become all-consuming. Typically, the disorder occurs in adolescents or young adults and is more prominent in women.
For mental health support and services, please reach out to Mind or call 0300 123 3393.
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Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
