Jeff Garlin opened up about his mental health struggles in a new interview, revealing that he texted his “Curb Your Enthusiasm” co-star Susie Essman a suicide note before seeking treatment for bipolar disorder.
During a Wednesday appearance on Ted Danson’s SiriusXM show “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” Garlin reflected on the “nervous breakdown” he experienced while filming his final season of ABC’s “The Goldbergs.”
“I had a blowout with ‘The Goldbergs,’” the actor said of his abrupt departure from the show in 2021. Per Garlin, he erupted on-set over product placement for a pizza brand in one episode, prompting him to walk off the set.
“I knew I’d never come back to that set again,” he continued. “When the producer of the show came to my house, and I was done, didn’t want to go back. He said, ‘What would it take for you to go back?’ I said, ‘A big raise and I work one day a week.’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And if it sounds too good to be true, it’s too good to be true.”
Garlin claimed he faced a lot of “resentment” from the cast and crew over the deal, which he said resulted in him experiencing a “nervous breakdown.”
“I had a nervous breakdown and I was going to commit suicide,” he recalled, noting that he chose to reach out to his longtime “Curb Your Enthusiasm” co-star Essman to alert her to his struggle.
“I reached out to Susie,” he shared. “And I said, ‘I hate when people don’t reach out, but at noon today, I will be dead. I’m letting you know I will be dead.’”
Essman responded to his message by reaching out to his ex-wife Marla Garlin and his girlfriend Sari Tracht, with the women working together to find a treatment facility for Garlin to go to. Garlin recalled how the women enlisted his best friend Brad Morris to sit with him as they sought him help.
“He watched me while they were looking for a place for me to go,” he said. “And the choices came down to two places that could be helpful, with all the research they were doing and talking to people. Beverly Hills, this is the middle of winter, a private lush home. Big facility in Beverly Hills … And then there’s this place in Cincinnati.”
Garlin shared that he elected to go to the facility in Cincinnati, noting he “was serious” about getting help.
“I learned this thing called DBT, dialectical behavior therapy. I was no longer suicidal,” Garlin said of his treatment. “They helped get me to a point where I could stand. And then, I went out in the world and it took time between therapy and medication for bipolar, all that stuff, to where I felt kind of whole.”
Five years later, Garlin noted that he was “just now feeling really good.” Though, he reflected on his “really low” points and alleged that “no one at Sony said, ‘Are you okay?’”
As we previously reported, Garlin left “The Goldbergs” in the middle of Season 9 in 2021 after an HR investigation into his on-set behavior. At the time, Sony Pictures Television, which produced the show, declined to comment, but, individuals with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that the decision was mutual.
Garlin later commented on his departure to Vanity Fair, stating, “My opinion is, I have my process about how I’m funny, in terms of the scene and what I have to do. They feel that it makes for a quote ‘unsafe’ workspace. Now, mind you, my silliness making an unsafe workspace — I don’t understand how that is. And I’m on a comedy show. I am always a kind and thoughtful person.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
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