Ed Helms (The Office) opened up on the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast about the extreme anxiety he experienced following the premiere of the wildly successful 2009 comedy The Hangover. Helms told the former late-night host that the movie–about a group of friends dealing with the consequences of some poor life choices– becoming a box office smash sent him into a “tornado of fame” that “was very overwhelming.”
“I definitely felt a lot of anxiety and identity turmoil,” Helms said (via Entertainment Weekly). “One of the craziest things about a massive jump into fame like that is–and I think this is what people who never dealt with it or came close to it can never understand–is just the total loss of your environment. When you’re a famous person, you just can’t stand at baggage claim and expect it to be normal.”