Owen Wilson spoke candidly about his life, his two sons, death, and, for the first time, grappling with the aftermath of his 2007 suicide attempt in a new interview for Esquire.
The actor has declined to discuss the incident in the past, and while he still remains pretty tight-lipped on the subject, he did credit his older brother Andrew with helping him get through that particularly dark period in his life. “Sometimes it seems like life is being played by Gene Hackman in Hoosiers. Tough but fair,” Wilson explained. “He’s going to demand a lot, but if you play as a team and do your job, things work out. That’s a good feeling. Things make sense.” However, he added, “Sometimes life seems to be played by Tom Hardy in The Revenant, some nightmarish guy trying to kill you, where even if you get the upper hand. He’s still going to be there at the end whispering, ‘This ain’t gonna bring your boy back’ or your dad back or any good times from your past back. Or whatever. And when life’s being played by that guy, you just gotta hang on and wait for it to pass.’”
When asked how one begins to cope with those times when it feels like Hardy is trying to ruin your life, The French Dispatch star credited his brother. He explained to the author that Andrew “stayed in his house with him” following the attempt, “rising with him each morning and writing up little schedules for each day so that life seemed at first manageable and then, at some point, a long time later, actually good.” Wilson has long battled depression and confessed that the idea of death “landed with me when I was about eleven.” He continued, “I don’t remember ever talking with my parents about it. Although I do remember one time saying to my dad—and I remember exactly where in the house—saying, ‘I worry about dying,’ and seeing my dad turn away and catch himself. And I was surprised to see that reaction. But who knows, maybe that was part of why I said it.”
But these days, the actor says, “I’ve been in sort of a lucky place of feeling pretty appreciative of things. I know everything’s kind of up and down, but when you get on one of these waves, you’ve gotta ride it as long as you can. I’ve just felt—yeah. Feeling pretty grateful. Well, grateful’s one of those words that get used all the time. Appreciative. Of, you know, stuff.”
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