Aubrey Plaza gave some insight into how she’s coping with her late husband’s suicide.
The White Lotus actress appeared on the Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast where she discussed how she’s doing in the wake of Jeff Baena’s death in January.
Poehler broached the subject with her former Parks and Recreation castmate, noting that many of her fans want to know how she is given the tragic circumstances.
“I’m in this very present moment I’m happy to be with you,” Plaza said tentatively. “Overall I’m here and I’m functioning and I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I’m OK. But, you know, it’s a daily struggle, obviously.”
Plaza went on to use the Apple TV+ sci-fi movie The Gorge as a metaphor of what its like trying to deal with having a dark and monstrous ever-present void in your life. In the film, Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy play highly trained snipers stationed in towers on separate sides of a mysterious gorge and are tasked with preventing the monsters within from escaping.
“This is a really dumb analogy and it was kind of a joke but I actually mean it, did you see that movie The Gorge?” Plaza said (video below; discussion starts around 10:30). “It’s like an alien movie with Miles Teller. In the movie, there’s a cliff on one side and a cliff on the other side and there’s a gorge [in the middle] with monster people that are trying to get them.”
Continued Plaza: “I watched it, I was like, ‘That what this feels like, what my grief is like — or what grief could be like.’ At all times there’s like a giant ocean of awfulness that’s like right there, and I can see it. And sometimes, I just want to dive into it and be in it. And then sometimes, I just look at it. And then sometimes, I’m just trying to get away from it. But it’s always there. It’s just always there. And the monster people are trying to get me.”
Poehler then quickly changed the subject to a lighter topic.
Baena was a 47-year-old indie film director and writer and died in his Los Angeles home in January. He had been dating Plaza for three years before she starred in his 2014 directorial debut, Life After Beth, which he also wrote. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. The couple worked together on five films, including The End of Love (2012), The Little Hours (2017) and Spin Me Round (2022).
Plaza and Baena were married in 2021, but were reportedly separated for four months before his death. A couple days later, Plaza and Baena’s family issued a statement, “This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.”
