00:00Taking care of your own mental health is important, but it's an easy thing to forget.
00:04Sometimes it's as easy as just remembering to breathe, you know, taking a moment to just
00:09take a breath. And then also, you know, being available to other people who need help,
00:16because sometimes that's the best medicine is to reach out and help somebody else.
00:22For Brut, I sat down with legendary actor, director, and native New Yorker Steve Buscemi
00:27to talk all things mental health, staying grounded and the importance of asking for help.
00:31So you were a firefighter and you were there on 9-11 getting in the dirt. What do you think is
00:39missing in how we deal with mental health, especially in those service positions that
00:45are so high pressure and high stress? Well, yeah, you brought up 9-11 and I was able to go there
00:52the next day and work with my old company Engine 55 for a few days. And look, a lot of us realized
00:59this was going to be something that was going to affect us the rest of our lives. And one of the,
01:04if you can call this a positive of 9-11, a lot of first responders for the first time
01:11admitted to themselves that they needed help. And one of the organizations that I've affiliated
01:17myself with is called Friends of Firefighters, founded by Nancy Carbone. And she provides
01:23free mental health services, not only to firefighters, but to their families. Because
01:28if a firefighter is going through something, if a first responder is going through something,
01:32it affects the whole family. You've been in the industry for so long. How do you stay grounded?
01:38I think I'm able to stay centered as much as I can be, if I am centered at all. Living in New York
01:44is, you know, a big reason, because it's not an industry town. I love LA. I love this industry,
01:54but I also like being away from it and just having friends who are outside of this business.
02:01And just the energy in New York, I find at times it can be chaotic or distressing,
02:07but I also find it very inspiring. His latest directorial work, The Listener, made its North
02:13American premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Festival. It follows Tessa Thompson as Beth during a night
02:19as a volunteer helpline worker, offering a view of American society through the prism of mental
02:24health. I love character-driven films, and The Listener, written by Alessandro Camon, had just
02:31such wonderfully drawn characters, especially the lead character, played by Tessa Thompson.
02:37She's a home helpline worker. You can't call them back, so you just wonder,
02:43did I upset them? Did I fail them? And the film is her journey through a night of manning the phones
02:51in her place and seeing how she deals with the number of people who are calling in, you know,
03:00distress, basically, and how she is able to listen, take in what they're saying, and
03:07offer some kind of comfort. It isn't about me. I'm just here to listen.
Comments