Christopher Abbott admitted he struggled with “an early identity crisis” while starring on Lena Dunham’s HBO dramedy “Girls,” revealing that he nearly quit acting altogether during Season 2.
During a Thursday appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, the actor, who leads Netflix’s “East of Eden” adaptation, opened up about how he handled fame after the series exploded in 2012.
Abbott confessed it was a bit disorienting being on a show that became a pop culture phenomenon. Per Abbott, he didn’t necessarily feel the impact during the first season, as he was juggling both “Girls” and a Broadway play at the time.
“Looking back on it, it was amazing because … you know, then I really wanted to work,” he said. “Now as I get older, I’m like, ‘I don’t want to work anymore.’”
He added: “To shoot that during the day and then to go do this, I was doing this play, ‘House of Blue Leaves’ at the time. … So, for me the experience of it lives in … that sort of memory reflecting on it. It’s so that was cool. Like, you know, I was like really hustling. I loved it.”
As Abbott went on, he noted that, while not a “huge shift,” he did start to find that some people treated him differently amid the success of “Girls.”
Abbott then recalled that he made an effort to go about his life at the time, and even notably took on odd jobs to see if he wanted to leave the acting life behind.
“I was doing weird things at that time,” he shared. “Like, I worked at a friend’s Italian Ice thing in Rockaway … That was maybe during the second season.”
“Why? Did you have to for money?” a surprised Josh Horowitz asked.
While Abbott noted he wasn’t making “that much money” on “Girls,” he explained that he had taken on the job while contemplating whether he wanted to be an actor anymore.
“I’ve had many periods during my career where I sort of felt like I wanted to quit acting,” he said. “You know, it was probably – I was trying to get in touch with like, whatever working roots or manhood roots. Not that working an Italian ice shop is like particularly a manly job.”
Abbott noted that during this same time, he worked as a set carpenter on other movies.
“I think maybe that was like, an early identity crisis of trying to like figure out, you know, am I just an actor,” he said. “Do I want to only rely on it? … I was probably acting out. Like, getting noticed for a big show like this made me sort of act out in certain ways.”
On how the people in his orbit handle this time, Abbott clarified that media coverage of his “Girls” exit was “more dramatic than it actually [was].”
“I’ll say, at least, on my end, I was always nervous to sign on to something for multiple seasons,” he noted. “‘Cause, whatever, my own fear of commitment generally. So, you know, I was a guest star for the first two seasons. And, you know, they wanted me to sign on for the third season [as well as] to sign on for like a six year or whatever. And that just sort of scared me just because, you know, I liked working on it, but I get bored easily.”
Abbott recalled that he felt like he wanted the freedom to “to do something else.” At this comment, Horowitz poked fun at Abbott for “signing on for 10 X-Men movies.”
Abbott, who has been cast as Professor Charles Xavier in the MCU’s “X-Men” reboot, countered that it wasn’t “that many” movies, adding that he was looking forward to the “stability” these days.
Abbott, who played Allison Williams’ character’s college sweetheart Charlie on two seasons of “Girls,” exited the show in 2013, with creator and co-star Dunham later commenting that the show didn’t rely “on guys.”
Despite reports of “creative differences,” Abbott later returned to “Girls” for a Season 5 episode, titled “The Panic in Central Park,” which is often referred to as one of the best in the series.
