Amanda Bynes is back after several years in the shadows and she has taken the opportunity to bring to light the true motives behind her decision to take an eight-year-long break from acting. The actress, who starred as Viola Hastings in 'She's the Man', a modern take on Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night', has confessed that it was this very film that sparked her downward spiral. She stated that it was not due to any mental health struggle, as they had said, but instead a profound depression that was caused by drugs and her role in the very film which made her a star.
She confessed in an interview that seeing the film sent her "into a deep depression for 4-6 months because I didn't like how I looked when I was a boy". The young actress's character in 'She's the Man' is a girl who is passionate about football, and who dresses up as a boy, taking her twin brother's place, in order to join the Illyria football team, where she meets and falls for Duke (Channing Tatum). Her transformation into the opposite sex was a traumatic experience for Bynes, who, after suffering a similar self consciousness with the release of 'Easy A', announced her retirement over Twitter. She later explained her choice, saying: "I literally couldn't stand my appearance in that movie and I didn't like my performance. I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it."
Despite this, Bynes has admitted that this depression was also provoked largely by her addiction to drugs, which started after her retirement in 2010. The actress revealed that she would smoke cannabis and take amphetamines, but that the thing which annoyed her the most was that she was being accused of being mentally ill. She said that her behavior was caused solely by drug abuse, and that each time she stopped consuming them she returned to normality.
She's Back
After many years of sobriety, Bynes now believes that she is finally ready for a return to acting, with the same enthusiasm as when she was a child. The actress has highlighted, however, that she does not wish to be limited by her past to certain role or productions. If she was capable of convincing the producers of 'She's the Man' that Channing Tatum would be a star, then surely Bynes is capable of anything. We hope so!
