Addiction and Silence equals Zero

January 2014 seems to have gone fleetingly with unfinished business from 2013. In my case it was a botched hasty NHS colonoscopy, which has hopefully caused no lasting complications? Time will tell. Despite that, I was thankful for the news it was not cancer.

                                          Me at Maxims in Paris, Feb 2013

The film business, reeling from the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, finds itself re-examining it's attitude to mental and physical health. Six years ago another acting icon, Heath Ledger died in similar circumstances in the same week in 2008.

I had the privilege of sitting at the same table as Heath Ledger, in the December before he died. He entered the canteen, looking drawn and hardly recognisable in a hoodie.. He was clearly unwell, looking much stressed and I deeply regret not being able to find a card for the Pinewood studios ‘in house’ alternative clinic, when he removed himself from the table to phone New York. It was no surprise to hear two months later he was dead. It left an impression on me and I chided the head of Pinewood Studios for not fighting to keep a new alternative health clinic open there and when it closed I suggested to Ivor Dunleavy, he try to investigate means of funding an addiction and alcohol clinic on site for actors. To date nothing has been done, perhaps because actors themselves don’t speak up about their problems, for fear that they won’t get work if they admit it, so they keep their addictions to themselves. The only time it seems it becomes public knowledge is when the actor is far beyond hope and on death's door.

This is a terrible state of affairs. 

As a Producer and Production Manager for over a decade, I have seen many actors quite literary pull themselves to work trying to hide the excesses of the night before. Their aggressive stance belies the reality of the situation and most PM’s (Production Managers) keep silent to maintain the flow of the production and it's insurance proclivities. However such a silence only delays the inevitable, which is that some actors will run into trouble with drugs and alcohol at some stage of their careers. In this case it is the silence by their peers that is the enemy and the movie industry needs to adopt a more open attitude to deal with the problem. At every studio there should be a drugs and alcohol drop in centre for moments when actors face difficulty. Time and money should be put into this by those who benefit, yet face the denial.

Acting is stressful and very self-criticising often to the point of being excruciating for the performer. So while we consider the talent of these people, we must also consider the toll on them and start to put a deposit down on their careers by providing more opportunities to discuss and deal with addictions.

In a similar vein, I feel that Lifestyle and Health in the acting community is largely ignored in favour of a false cosmetic appearance of Health, which is not the same thing. It is time we started to discuss things more openly.

In way of getting the ball rolling each of my blogs this year will contain a small section on Health Matters and those who follow me on twitter will know my predilection for things like Yoga, Crystal Healing and Tibetan singing bowls. All three of them have a similar theme in that they have the ability to change the frequency of our brainwaves in such a way as to remove old habits that can clog our arteries and mental health. Crystals I find in that they are based on the mineral content of the stones have some basis for use in science. Quartz in particular has the ability to hold information similar to that of magnetic tape. By their use we can help to programme our habits into a more fruitful positive framework, by ‘tuning’ in to the life force and positive energy of the stones. Some will say this is hogwash, but it is no accident that the computer binary code is carried by quartz light pulses so it is not out with scientific knowledge to understand how Crystals transmit positive emissions of energy. In illness we can effectively put our own programme command into Crystals to ask them to assist in healing. This could mean they will assist in aligning our brain to eating the right food at the right time for our own mineral and vitamin improvement or helping by bringing someone to you who has the correct answer to your problem. Crystals work purely on a positive level and their own programme in Nature means they cannot accept negative transmissions and will move away from such suggestions. Many people speak of losing a crystal and this is most likely when the crystal itself will not tolerate negative energy. Intrinsically connected to Nature, crystals are one of the Earth Healing Entities. So with that knowledge I hope you will enjoy other such Health tips in my future blogs.

Happy New Year , if only that it is a month late!