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Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor is struggling with anxiety after Netflix fame

‘There are things I do to ground myself, because it’s quite hectic at the moment,’ said actor

Ellie Harrison
Wednesday 06 October 2021 03:18 EDT
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Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor has said she is “full of anxiety” after shooting to fame in the period drama.

The actor, 26, was thrust into the spotlight with her role as Daphne Bridgerton in the Netflix smash.

However, she has revealed she is struggling to cope with the attention the show has brought and worries about “letting someone down”.

“I don’t think anyone knows how to handle that. I worry about everything. I’m full of anxiety. I have a fear of failure, letting someone down, contradicting myself,” she told Harper’s Bazaar UK.

“You see what it is for your mental health to be in the public eye,” she continued.

“I meditate, I have a therapist, I walk every day. There are things I do to ground myself, because it’s quite hectic at the moment.”

Dynevor, who is the daughter of Coronation Street star Sally Dynevor, said she was surprised by the success of Bridgerton and only realised the impact it would have on her life when she found photographers outside her front door.

“I thought it was just another project,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone was going to care. We were all in lockdown, stuck at home and nothing changed.

“In the first season, people were saying to me, ‘You know this could be huge,’ but you don’t ever believe that, and you will never understand what it feels like until it happens to you.”

Dynevor with her ‘Bridgerton’ season one co-star, Rege-Jean Page
Dynevor with her ‘Bridgerton’ season one co-star, Rege-Jean Page (Liam Daniel/Netflix)

Dynevor continued: “It’s quite out-of-body and weird. It was only when we started being able to leave the house again and there were photographers outside – which was really scary – that I realised if I went out in my pyjamas, there might be someone taking pictures.”

Dynevor, who played an aristocrat in Bridgerton, said she is keen to represent her own family background on screen. “My mum grew up in Oldham and was going to work at a cigarette factory till she decided to go to drama school, so there’s part of me that wants to represent the Northern working-class background,” she said.

“What I’ve started to realise about this industry is that the highs can be really high, but the lows can be really low, so it’s finding that middle ground and centring oneself.

“It’s really important for me and my sanity to work on projects that I love and develop characters that I think are really interesting – that’s the excitement for me.”

Dynevor is currently filming the UK version of the hit French series Call My Agent!, which she stars in alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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