Actress Ruby Barker, who starred on the first season of the blockbuster Shondaland and Netflix series, “Bridgerton,” is speaking out against both companies for giving her “no support” when she had two psychotic breaks because of her role on the show.
Barker, a series regular as Marina during season one, and a guest star for season two, says she had her first mental episode because of the role just after season one wrapped and suffered a second one in 2022 but hasn’t heard from anyone from the production since.
“Not a single person from Netflix, not a single person from Shondaland, since I have had two psychotic breaks from that show, have even contacted me or even emailed me to ask me if I’m OK or if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support,” Barker said in an interview on Oxford University’s “LOAF” podcast. “Nobody.”
She went on to detail just how the character sent her spiraling.
“During filming, I was deteriorating,” she said. “It was a really tormenting place for me to be because my character was very alienated, very ostracized, on her own under these horrible circumstances.”
“When I went into [the] hospital a week after shooting ‘Bridgerton’ season one, it was really covered up and kept on the down-low because the show was going to be coming out,” Barker continued. “In the run-up to the show coming out, I was just coming out from [the] hospital, my Instagram following was going up, I had all these engagements to do … My life was changing drastically overnight and yet there was still no support and there still hasn’t been any support all that time. So I was trying really, really hard to act like it was OK and that I could work and that it wasn’t a problem.”
Barker memorably made a May 2022 Instagram post in which she shared her thoughts while recovering from an episode.
“I am in [the] hospital at the minute and I am going to be discharged soon and hopefully get to continue with my life,” she wrote at the time. “I was raged-filled, angry, all this intergenerational trauma bundled up inside me. I was carrying the weight of the world on my back and now I am at the point where I have a diagnosis.”
On the “LOAF” podcast, Barker further shares her experience of not feeling supported and still having to go out and promote the show.
“It’s almost like I had this metaphorical invisible gun to my head to sell this show because this show is bubbly and fun,” Barker shared. “I don’t want to come out and poo poo on that because then I’ll never work again.”
Watch Barker’s full appearance on the podcast in the video below.
