Aubrey Plaza discusses her grief, likening it to a terrifying horror film experience
Aubrey Plaza Opens Up About Grief on 'Good Hang' Podcast
Seven months after the tragic loss of her husband, Jeff Baena, Aubrey Plaza has given an update on her well-being in an emotional interview on the podcast "Good Hang" with Amy Poehler.
Plaza described her emotional state as a daily struggle, comparing her grief to the sci-fi film "The Gorge" by Scott Derrickson. In the film, characters are on cliffs with a dangerous abyss filled with monstrous creatures. Plaza related this to her experience of grief as an "ocean of awfulness" that is always visible and sometimes tempting to dive into, but also something she tries to avoid or escape from.
The monsters in the film symbolize the struggles and intrusive pain of grief that try to "get" her, capturing the relentlessness and unpredictability of mourning. Plaza's analogy conveys that grief is not a linear process or something that can be fully escaped—it is ever-present, threatening, and fluctuates in intensity, much like the treacherous gorge and monsters in the film.
Plaza's comparison reflects how grief can feel like being trapped between dangerous forces, constantly under siege yet still needing to function and carry on day to day. This was Plaza's first public discussion of her personal grief journey following Baena's suicide in early January at the age of 47.
In a statement after Baena's death, Plaza described the tragedy as unimaginable and requested privacy. Plaza and Baena were married in 2020.
For those affected by depression, there are various resources available. In Germany, there is a children and youth telephone service at 0800/111-0-333 or 116-111, a telephone service for crisis intervention at 0800/111-0-111 or 0800/111-0-222, a Germany-wide information telephone for depression at 0800 33 44 5 33, and regional crisis services and clinics provided by the German Depression Help.
The Gorge is available on Apple TV+ since February, starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.
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