The Emmy winner told a post-show discussion that co-star Jin Ha helped her understand the toll performing in Proof was taking on her body during the early weeks of the run.
Ayo Edebiri has revealed that starring in the Broadway revival of Proof left her with pounding headaches and unexpected weight loss during the opening weeks of the production. The actress made the comments during a discussion following the Tuesday, 7 July performance at the Booth Theatre, hosted by the mental health charity Project Healthy Minds — an event attended by PEOPLE.
According to PEOPLE, Edebiri said she could not initially explain the symptoms until her co-star Jin Ha offered an explanation, telling her: “You’re sort of grieving for work.”
In Proof, Edebiri plays Catherine, a young woman coming to terms with the death of her brilliant but mentally troubled father, Robert, played by Don Cheadle, while fearing she may have inherited his illness. Written by David Auburn and a winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award, the play turns on doubts raised by Catherine’s sister, Claire (Adrienne Warren), and her father’s former student, Hal (Jin Ha), over whether she is really the author of a significant mathematical proof found among her father’s papers. Directed by Thomas Kail, the current revival opened in April and is due to close on 19 July — the first time the play has returned to Broadway since its original 2000 run, which starred Mary-Louise Parker, Larry Bryggman, Johanna Day and Ben Shenkman.
Edebiri, 30, is used to portraying emotionally demanding roles on screen, but said performing live eight times a week presented an entirely different challenge. She described a distinction between her physical and emotional responses to the part, likening stage acting to an athletic pursuit that varies from night to night depending on the audience in the room. Rehearsing for around ten hours a day, she added, had shown her just how much the production was affecting her physically — an experience she connected to the themes of Dr Bessel van der Kolk’s book The Body Keeps the Score.
Cheadle, 61, said he recognised the same pattern while playing Robert, telling the discussion that the body cannot always tell the difference between what is real and what is being performed on stage. He compared the after-effects of performing to a genuine stress response, suggesting the endocrine system reacts as though the character’s experiences are actually happening, regardless of what the mind knows to be true.
Edebiri also reflected on the significance of appearing in a revival led by a predominantly Black cast, saying she had never expected to take on a role of this kind when she was studying theatre, having assumed such classical roles were effectively reserved for white actresses rather than performers like her. She said watching young audience members of colour respond to the production had become one of the most meaningful parts of the experience, describing her broader aim as creating opportunities for others in roles from which they might otherwise have felt shut out.
Project Healthy Minds works to make mental health support more accessible, and has also partnered this season with another Broadway production addressing similar themes, Every Brilliant Thing.
