In a recent interview with Eoin O’Hanlon, Johnny Ward has opened up about how he was bullied back in his school days.
Johnny was speaking on The Chit Chat Podcast when the subject came up, and he sad the teasing was because of his love of acting and drama at a young age.
“I was three doing my first mime. I was doing poetry and then Fleadh Cheoil, anytime there was singing or drama competition, that’s how it started.
“Then my first film was when I was eight. I just had one line in a film called The Boy from Mercury and then it went on from that.”
He revealed that he had always been into acting that that ; “I just woke up in a drama class really.”
The Fair City star said that he was taunted and called “gay” but classmates because of it; “Then there was always that thing ‘oh I don’t want to do singing, I’d rather do drama’ and then you got slagged for it an awful lot in school.”
“It was very frowned upon back then, you know ‘oh your man he does singing and stuff like that’.”
“I was taunted a lot in school ‘you’re gay, you’re gay, you’re gay, you’re gay’ but I did stick to it.”
Opening up about this topic can only help others you have been through the same experiences, or even any young and up and coming actors who may be feeling the same way. Johnny has always been very vocal about his mental health, from how he dealt with the recent death of his father to how he coped during lockdown.
he shared that he has been focussing on his health, both mentally and physically.
Speaking on Ireland AM earlier this year he shared that he has been exercising six days a week, meditating and has stopped drinking and smoking.
“I just said, let’s set a challenge. Let’s have a substitute. I’ve been working out, I’ve cut out drinking, I’ve cut out cigarettes the last two months.”
“I never did meditation before, but my friends sent me a 21 Day Challenge and I don’t know what I’ll do when it’s over.”
“Learning to breathe and doing these meditations makes you see life in a different way altogether.”
