After Jeff Garlin left the ABC comedy The Goldbergs following an HR investigation stemming from multiple complaints about his behavior, he struggled mentally to the point that he considered ending his life.
“I had a nervous breakdown, and I was going to commit suicide,” the actor said this week on Ted Danson‘s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast.
Garlin contacted his and Danson’s fellow Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Susie Essman, who got Garlin’s friends to help him get treatment.
“I reached out to Susie [Essman], and I said, ‘I hate when people don’t reach out, but at noon today I will be dead. I’m letting you know I will be dead.’,” the actor recalled.
“And she called [ex-wife] Marla, and she called [girlfriend] Sari and my friend, Brad Morris,” he said. “My girlfriend and my ex-wife called him. He’s one of my best friends. He watched me while they were looking for a place for me to go.”
Ultimately Garlin checked into rehab in Cincinnati, Ohio, and underwent dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which helped him overcome his suicidal thoughts.
“I was no longer suicidal,” he said. “They helped get me to a point where I could stand, and then I went out in the world and it took time between therapy and medication for bipolar all that stuff to where I felt kind of whole.”
In 2022, Garlin revealed he was bipolar, recently claiming the undiagnosed mental health condition affected his behavior on The Goldbergs.
Garlin said he’s “now feeling really good” and is “very content,” adding that he’s sharing his mental health struggles to raise awareness.
“The point is … for people who do what we do, we get just as dark as you do,” he said. “We have bad days just like you do. And I, Jeff Garlin, comedian, joyful gentleman, was going to end his life. But I’m grateful that I had friends and family. And then people have been so supportive of me.”
Garlin left The Goldbergs in December 2021 after more than eight seasons playing father Murray Goldberg. The mutual decision between Garlin and production company Sony Pictures Television came during production on the ABC series’ ninth season and followed investigations from HR and Vanity Fair, with the latter reporting on an alleged pattern of verbal and physical conduct that made staffers uncomfortable.
“My opinion is, I have my process about how I’m funny, in terms of the scene and what I have to do. They feel that it makes for a quote ‘unsafe’ workspace. Now, mind you, my silliness making an unsafe workspace — I don’t understand how that is. And I’m on a comedy show. I am always a kind and thoughtful person,” Garlin told Vanity Fair in December 2021.