Janelle Monae speaks out on ‘triggering’ experience while filming time-travelling slavery horror Antebellum

'Oh, I brought all of my ancestors home with me,' said the actor

Actor and singer Janelle Monae has spoken about how “triggering” it was to film her upcoming horror film Antebellum.

In the film, the 34-year-old plays an author who is unwillingly transported back in time to a reality where she is enslaved.

During a Hollywood Reporter Drama Actress Roundtable with Jennifer Aniston, Zendaya, Rose Byrne, Helena Bonham Carter and Reese Witherspoon, Monae explained what it was like shooting Antebellum last year.

“Oh, I brought all of my ancestors home with me,” she said. "We were filming most of the stuff at night on a plantation, and I felt everything. There were just certain conversations even at craft services that if I heard would be triggering for me.

“I couldn't even talk to my family sometimes. It was kind of unhealthy when I think back."

Monae explained how taking on her role in Antebellum was not an easy decision for her to make.

She said: “This is a project that is so of the times, and it was not going to be a yes for me because I knew the responsibility and the weight of it and I knew what this character was going to have to go through physically and emotionally”.

During this busy period in her career, Monae was also dealing with mercury poisoning from a fish she ate, but found a way to utilise it in her work.

“I used it for Homecoming. I didn't know I had it in Antebellum, but looking back at the footage, I used the disorientation and unravelling in my personal life onscreen.”

When Bonham Carter asked about Monae's symptoms, the Hidden Figures actor explained she had memory and hair loss.

“What else?" she added. "Coordination, high anxiety, shyness. I didn't want to talk to people.

“People would reach out, and I apologise now if you were one of those people last year who reached out to me and wanted to talk or engage in business or whatever. I just didn't have it in me. I became kind of a recluse."