James Norton says role in play exploring abuse led to him having panic attacks

British actor James Norton has revealed that his role in a London play about trauma and sexual abuse led to him having panic attacks.

Last year the Happy Valley actor, 39, starred in A Little Life, an adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s novel in which he played Jude, a character who experienced abuse as a child.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, he said: “It was the hardest thing I’ve done.

“I was naive. I thought I would be able to apply my philosophy to split work and life, but without sounding overly worthy, it felt so important because some people who came to see the play were survivors of abuse.

“And so, to do the role justice, I gave over my life for six months.

“But if the work starts to compromise one’s relationships, it can become unhealthy.

“Suddenly you realise you haven’t left any space for other people and so I was pissed off with that. We did the play 180 times.”

“I was a mess,” Norton continued.

“Having panic attacks. During the first week I watched the Bill Nighy movie Living and started to cry.

“I was still crying 45 minutes later, coughing up tears. I started resenting the play and I was a catatonic mess.

“I’d go home and watch Gogglebox for two hours. I got really confused, and I’d wake up and my first feeling was rage.

“I’d think, ‘Why the f*** am I doing this?’”

He added: “But by the end I felt incredible. I was exhausted and hurting, but months after the show finished I was talking to the producer and said we should do it again.”

A warning on the website of the Savoy Theatre, one of the venues it was staged in, said the production included “strong language, nudity, sexual violence, physical and emotional abuse, self-harm, and suicide”.

It also contained “moments of flashing/strobe lighting, blood, smoking, periods of loud music and the use of strong scents”.

Norton is known for playing villain Tommy Lee Royce in Bafta-winning drama series Happy Valley and most recently played Robert Edwards in the film Joy, which tells the story of the world’s first in vitro fertilisation (IVF) baby.