Will Poulter: COVID-19 helped people 'wake up' to mental health importance

Will Poulter thinks the COVID-19 pandemic has helped “wake people up” to the importance of mental health care.

The 28-year-old actor has said he “constantly” takes care of his own mental health and believes that while the ongoing health crisis has been “challenging” for various reasons, one positive is that people now feel more “empathy” for those struggling with their mental health.

He told GQ Hype magazine: “I’m constantly reminded of the importance of taking care of my mental health and obviously, aside from the phyal challenges that it posed, I think the pandemic woke a lot of people up to the importance of extending that sort of empathy and level of care that we have with phyal health to people’s mental health. Mental health is phyal health, you know.”

Will recently took a career blow when he had to pull out of a part in Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series due to a scheduling conflict.

And while backing out of the role was disappointing, he’s learned to get used to things “not going his way”.

He added: “As an actor, you’re very used to things not going your way and having to adapt accordingly. I’m more used to things not going my way. So I just had to shake that one off.”

The ‘Dopek’ star also took his mental health into his own hands in 2019 when he decided to quit Twitter, and while he now has his account back, he only uses it to be a platform for charitable causes that are close to his heart.

He explained: “I just feel like that’s the best and most healthy way to use it for me personally. I’m really lucky those organisations — The Black Curriculum, anti-bullying or Alzheimer’s Research UK — allow me to do that.”

Read the full feature online at GQ Hype now at https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/will-poulter-guardians-of-the-galaxy-3-interview