Here’s how actor Zachary Levi battled depression and decades of trauma before joining Shazam!

Shazam! anger of the gods, in continuation to Shazam!will again star Zachary Levi, American actor known for his roles in the series chuckin the saga of Thor, and for being the voice of Flynn Rider from the Disney animated movie confused.

the saga of Shazam! tells the story of Billy Batson, a teenager who lives in an orphanage home and is given powers by a wizard named Shazam for his “purity of heart”. To activate his powers, which include superhuman strength, invulnerability, the ability to fly and manipulate electricity, all Billy has to do is say the word Shazam. But once he says it, he becomes an adult version of himself, able to display the talents that have been given to him.

Levi, 42, plays the adult version of Billy, who then also shares powers with his adoptive siblings. The sequel’s plot deals with the consequences of Billy’s adoptive brothers’ newfound superhero status, as they battle the daughters of Atlas, the ancient Greek god, who believe their powers have been unjustly taken from them.

One of Billy’s wishes was always to have a family he would call his own, and the pain of being abandoned by his mother as a child always seemed to accompany him. That’s why he tries to keep his new family together.

Peter Safran, producer of Shazam! anger of the godsstressed in a statement that Levi’s freshness on screen makes him ideal to play a kid. “Zac Levi is a 14-year-old boy trapped in the body of a very handsome six-foot-tall man, a fact that hasn’t changed since he made the first movie. His enthusiasm for the role and for playing the now 18-year-old has not diminished at all.” says the producer.

However, the boy in Levi that his producer is talking about did not have a very happy childhood. The actor has been very open in talking about his mental health in various media outlets, highlighting how his mother’s and stepfather’s attitudes marked him in traumatic ways: in a podcast appearance Heart of the matterby journalist Elizabeth Vargas, Levi talked about his stepfather’s “unattainable” expectations and his struggles with his mother’s mood swings, who has borderline personality disorder.

Levi’s acting career has taken him into a variety of disciplines from Broadway musicals to voice acting and now playing a superhero, the kind of role most coveted by aspiring actors today. However, as he recounted on Vargas’s podcast and in his book, Radical love: learning to accept yourself and others (Radical love: learning to accept yourself and others), he lived for a long time feeling that he had wasted his life.

“I felt like I had failed at everything in my life. I felt that someone else in my position would have taken all the blessings I had and built a better life with them.‘, the artist confessed to Vargas.

He also admitted to resorting to alcohol and sex to deal with his anxiety, a feeling that had been present “all his life” but was unable to identify until he entered therapy. The incident that finally led him to seek help from mental health professionals was a panic attack he had in Austin, Texas, United States.

He had decided to move to Austin from Los Angeles because it seemed like an interesting city, in addition to the fact that taxes in the state of Texas are lower than those in California. However, she soon realized that she didn’t know anyone in town and that she had left her support network in California.

Helen Mirren plays Hespera, the big villain in ‘Shazam! anger of the gods

One evening he had a panic attack when he decided which restaurant to have lunch at. He thought about committing suicide, and there he decided to enter the hospital to receive therapy that “saved his life”, unraveling “37 years of a lot of trauma”.he described to the medium CBNNews.

He also thought of his family when he had suicidal thoughts. At that time, around 2018, her sister had just had a child. He said part of what held him back was thinking about the effect his death would have on his sister, making her not the mother his son needs.

While the immediate help he received helped him, the pandemic caused his mental health to decline. NowLevi returns in the leading role of Shazam! anger of the godswhich hit theaters around the world on Thursday, March 16.