Brie Larson opens up about anxiety in first YouTube video after six-month break

‘I felt really nervous today even about making this video,’ Captain Marvel star says

After a six-month hiatus, Brie Larson has returned to YouTube with a video in which she candidly discussed her anxiety and plans for the new year.

In the new video, posted to her channel on 6 January, Larson, 32, explained that she had been “away for a bit,” as she was making a movie that she “can’t talk about”.

As the Room star discussed what’s next for her channel, which she acknowledged has been a place where she has loved sharing about herself and “life,” she also highlighted how her plans for the year, in general, have been impacted her anxiety.

“I am thinking about this new year, and what I want out of my life, and time, and this new year, and I find the concept of a new year to be sort of scary,” Larson admitted. “I felt really nervous today even about making this video, because, I don’t know, cause I suffer from anxiety.”

“But that aside, I want to take more seriously my fun,” she continued. “I’m serious, I really want to be more serious about the fun. Having fun when I’m working, having fun with my friends, having fun with this channel. Let’s find the joy.”

According to Larson, who acknowledged that she can still feel her own anxiety and worries, that can “all exist” while she strives to take the “moments where there is bliss and there is joy and I can expand them”.

She shared that she will be doing videos on a wide range of topics, such as cooking, video games, and home workouts.

This isn’t Larson’s first time opening up about her mental health. In a YouTube video posted last March, in honour of Captain Marvel’s two-year anniversary, Larson detailed how she reacted when she found out that she was playing the lead, Carol Danvers.

While she said that she felt “destined” to do the film, she explained that she couldn’t tell her friends and family that she got the part right away, and that accepting this part brought on feelings of anxiety.

“Something I know I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again because it’s so important to me, is that if you are somebody that struggles, perhaps struggles with social anxiety, anxiety, depression, or just is somebody that is shy, quiet, these are all things that I identify with myself,” she explained.

“It doesn’t mean it has to be a limitation in any way,” Larson added. “You can still accomplish great things and also have those be part of you.”

In a YouTube video posted in September 2020, Larson noted that she almost turned down her Captain Marvel role due to her anxiety.

She recalled thinking: “Oh, I can’t do that. I have too much anxiety. That’s too much for me. I don’t think I could handle that.”

Marvel reached out to Larson again, months later, saying they were interested in her, but she was still left thinking: “I’m too much of an introvert. That’s way too big of a thing for me.”

However, she eventually accepted the part after a meeting with Marvel, during which she got to see the early costume designs for her character, hear more about the film’s plot, and speak with the writers.