Sometimes Platt – a former actor – gets involved before filming begins, helping writers turn harrowing autobiographical material into screenplays. Sometimes she introduces herself to the cast and crew at the start of filming and lets them know that they can call them. She’s also there for film editors who have to watch harrowing scenes over and over again at the end of a show.
The presence of therapists on set and on-call is particularly notable in UK film and television, which has been involved in an industry-wide discussion of mental health since 2017 when Michael Harm, a site manager who had worked on numerous films including the Harry Potter Franchise, killed himself.
On the day he died, Harm sent a letter to a colleague, Sue Quinn, saying he had nowhere help with problems in the workplace and urged her to change that for others in the industry.
“You get pushed, pushed, pushed and pushed to the limit all the time,” said Quinn, also a location manager, of the experience working on a typical set. This applies in particular when producers give adherence to the budget priority over mental health. Actors and crew work grueling hours and many experience bullying, she added.
After Quinn received the letter, he reached out to a British non-profit helping film and television workers in financial difficulty and asked them to set up a hotline for workers with problems such as depression, anxiety and bullying, and financial stress. The following year that organization, the Film and TV Charity, launched a 24-hour phone line: it received around 7,000 calls in 2020, said Valeria Bullo, a member of the charity’s mental health team.
