HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED...

Emmy Winner, 72, Admits He Had a ‘Nervous Breakdown’ From Career Stress

The acclaimed actor admitted he was “not in a good place” emotionally.

Actor Tony Shalhoub, 72, revealed that early-career insecurities made him physically sick.

“I literally drove myself crazy because my life was so out of balance,” the four-time Emmy winner said on the Really Famous with Kara Mayer Robinson podcast on Wednesday. “Even when I was doing alright or keeping my head above water, feeling like it wasn’t enough.”

The Monk star said his fear of failing began to “manifest itself physically.”

“I got very sick,” he said. “I kind of had a mini breakdown, a nervous breakdown. Physically, I was in poor health and psychologically, emotionally I was not in a good place.”

“I was so consumed or kind of obsessed with clawing my way up whatever that ladder is. I sort of succumbed to the stress of it all, and I was in a very unhealthy place,” Shalhoub admitted, adding that he was comparing his career to those of other people.

After performing in theater shows and on Broadway, Shalhoub scored his first regular TV role in NBC’s sitcom Wings, which ran from 1991 to 1997.

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When the first episode of his crime show, Monk, premiered in 2002, Shalhoub was about to turn 49. The hit show, in which he portrayed a brilliant detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder, ran for eight seasons, until 2009.

After guest-starring in Nurse Jackie and The Blacklist, among other roles, Shalhoub went on to star in all five seasons of the comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel from 2017 to 2023.

“I think I was putting more focus and emphasis on the work at the expense of my relationships, my friendships, my physical health,” Shalhoub said of his early career.

His wife, actress Brooke Adams, 77, helped him turn his life around.

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“I wasn’t really that confident or fully trusting. It was my wife that really brought me to another place in that area because I was, in fact, very insecure,” Shalhoub said.

The two met while performing on the Broadway show The Heidi Chronicles in New York City in 1990, and married in 1992.

Adams, who made her acting breakthrough in the 1978 drama Days of Heaven playing opposite Richard Gere, made five guest appearances in Monk.

“She sort of brought balance to my life but also instilled in me confidence and kept hammering away at this idea that yes, all things are possible,” Shalhoub said. “It took me a long time to embrace that or feel deserving of that level of confidence.”

Now, Shalhoub says he feels “very lucky.”

“I’ve been in the career that I wanted to be in,” he said. “I married an incredible woman. I have two amazing adopted daughters, and I have grandchildren now. I have great friends.”

Adams adopted her first daughter, Josie Lynn, in 1988 before the couple met.

They adopted their second daughter, Sophie, in 1994. Shalhoub later adopted Josie Lynn as well.

“I’m from a big family and all of them are still going, still kicking,” Shalhoub, the second youngest of 10 children, added to his list of blessings.

Fans admired Shalhoub’s “terrific” appearance in the comments.

“I didn’t think I could love Tony more than I already do, but then this interview came along and taught me I could love him so much more!” one fan wrote.

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Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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