Johnson was honored at the event with the Hope Award for Depression Advocacy and spoke about a somewhat unexpected sartorial symptom she’d recently experienced during her acceptance speech.
“A few weeks ago I was having a low day. My partner said to me so kindly, ‘Are you really struggling?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Baby, you’re wearing a Cats T-shirt.’ Like Cats, the musical. It turns out I was really struggling,” she recounted, per the Daily Mail. She continued, “I think most of the time I speak about depression or anxiety in a very self-deprecating way. Perhaps it is easier to look it in the eyes if I wear the mask of comedy. Covering my pain or anxiety in comedy is a lifelong tool, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It works. It helps me because sometimes if I don’»t laugh, I’ll cry…. The biggest thing I’ve learnt about depression is learning to become okay with there never really being an immediate answer, never really being an immediate end.”
Dakota Johnson has long been open about her experiences with depression and anxiety, which she says have affected her since she was a teenager. Thankfully, she has no shortage of coping skills, including exercise, meditation and therapy. “I’ve learned to find it beautiful because I feel the world,” she told Marie Claire in 2020. “I guess I have a lot of complexities, but they don’t pour out of me. I don’t make it anyone else’s problem.”
