Ed Helms opens up on The Hangover’s fame: ‘led to anxiety and turmoil’

Ed Helms has recently recalled dealing with “a lot of anxiety” after the success of The Hangover movie.

During the latest episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, Ed confessed that the first movie’s success “brought a new level of fame” to him in 2009, which was “overwhelming”.

“It was a tornado of fame and a lot of buffeting. It was very overwhelming,” said the comic star.

Ed continued, “I was getting scripts for all these different kinds of projects. Like, ‘What do I do? I dunno.’ I was kind of spinning out and panicking about different things. Like, ‘Well, what kind of a career do you want?’”

The actor disclosed that it all led to him “feeling a lot of anxiety and identity turmoil”.

“I will say one of the craziest things about a massive jump into fame like that, and this is what I think people who have never dealt with that or been close to it just can’t understand, is the just total loss of control of your environment,” explained Ed.

While commending Hangover co-stars Bradley and Zach, Ed stated, “I would’ve stayed sane without them as they all experienced the massive explosion in fame at the same time.”

“But we all had each other to kind of be like, I don’t know, just to commiserate and measure ourselves… and I think we kept each other from drifting too far. And being too unprofessional,” he added.