Faye Dunaway opens up about her diagnosis of bipolar disorder in a new documentary Faye.
Ahead of the film’s premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Dunaway, now 83, made a rare red carpet appearance alongside her son Liam O’Neill at an event in France on May 15.
In the film, according to the festival’s description, the actress “bravely explores personal revelations – her struggles with mental health issues and bipolar disorder, her family history and how the intensity of the characters she plays still influences who she is today.” It features interviews with stars such as Sharon Stone, Mickey Rourke and James Gray.
About her mental health, Mesh The Oscar winner says at one point in the documentary, according to Page Six, “I worked with a group of doctors who analyzed my behavior, who gave me prescriptions for pills that they thought would be good for me. And that helped.”
“I’m so quiet. But throughout my career, people know that there were difficult moments,” she added, according to the newspaper. “I don’t mean to make excuses about it. I am still responsible for my actions.”
“But that’s what I realized was the reason for them. This is something you have to be aware of. You have to try to do the right thing to take care of it,” she continued.
Faye Dunaway makes a rare red carpet appearance with her son at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Faye Dunaway in ‘Mommie Dearest’ 1981 Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
In the documentary, Dunaway calls bipolar disorder “something that’s just part of my makeup.”
“Thank God there are drugs and there are studies and there are doctors who are dealing with this, and I have benefited from it. Medicines are key, and without them you go back to where you are psychologically and biologically,” she says.
Inside Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway’s 50-year friendship—and why they never dated
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(665x164:667x166)/Faye-Dunaway-03-4f04d281f7c043868333c91a87fa645b.jpg)
Faye Dunaway in ‘The Network’ 1976 United Artists/Kobal/Shutterstock
In a Q&A published on the Cannes Film Festival website, Faye director Laurent Bouzereau, who is friends with Dunaway’s son Liam, says the actress was initially “stressed” about making the film.
“Faye is used to working according to a script. But this was real life. There is no script. There is no rehearsal. And she was very stressed about the process. I thought it was very brave of her to do that,” says Bouzereau.
“She started to trust us. In the end, I think she was very happy. It was something cathartic for her because she had to talk about everything that she had never really mentioned before,” added the director.
Faye produced by HBO Documentaries.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education