VIDEO: 'Stranger Things' Star David Harbour Talks Writing Book on His Experience With Mental Illness

David Harbour/ YouTube
David Harbour/ YouTube /

David Harbour has been in show business for a long time, but most recently he won our hearts in his role as Jim Hopper on Netflix’s Stranger Things. Now, it turns out that the 44-year-old actor is turning his talents to the written word.

In the video below, the Hellboy star sits down for an interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. When the host asks him about the book he is writing, the always-jolly Harbour pauses with a grin and responds, “It is hard to talk about this because it means I actually have to write it.”

The Suicide Squad actor continues to describe what his first book will be about, explaining, “I’m really excited about writing it. It’s something that’s very near and dear to my heart…It’s kind of a memoir but it’s about my relationship to mental illness, and my having been institutionalized and sort of dealing with the whole medical community around a diagnosis of being bipolar.”

Harbour added that he hopes his book will help other people dealing with their own mental illness, explaining:

“I think it’s rare to see people who are, you know, sort of successful who have had really deep struggles with mental illness come out and say to people who are struggling with it, like, ‘It’s okay. You can be successful, have a large cultural voice. You can do a lot in this world. Just because you are deemed mentally ill doesn’t mean it’s some kind of death sentence.'”

Though he states he is only in the “mid-book part,” we can’t wait for him to be done so we can get to know more about the brilliant actor who brought Hopper to life!