Nicole Beharie, who played Lieutenant Abbie Mills on the Sleepy Hollow TV series, recently revealed that she left the show because she had an autoimmune disorder. According to her, she was treated badly on set and was given a reputation of being difficult on set.
In an interview with ABC News, Beharie said that she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder in 2016 and that the filming schedule for Sleepy Hollow was too demanding for her to handle. “I was having a lot of health problems and I was like, ‘I can’t do this. The show is killing me.’ I wasn’t able to be my best self,” she said.
Beharie also said that she was subjected to racism on the set of Sleepy Hollow. “There were times when I felt like I wasn’t being treated fairly on set because of the colour of my skin,” she said. “I definitely felt at a disadvantage.”
The actor pointed out the experiences she and her co-star, Tom Mison, had when they both got sick. “He was allowed to go back to England for a month [to recover while] I was given Episode 9 to shoot on my own,” she said. “So I pushed through it and then by the end of that episode I was in urgent care. And all the doctors, including the doctors that the studio was sending, were all confirming, ‘Hey, she can’t work right now.’”
Despite her health issues and allegations of racism, Beharie says that she doesn’t regret leaving Sleepy Hollow. “I’m really proud of the work that I did on that show, but it was just time for me to go,” she said. “I needed to take care of myself.”
Sleepy Hollow fans were disappointed when Beharie announced that she was leaving the show. Many of them took to social media to express their disappointment. “So sad that Nicole Beharie is leaving Sleepy Hollow. She was the heart and soul of the show,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
It’s unclear whether or not the allegations of racism played a role in Beharie’s decision to leave Sleepy Hollow. However, it’s clear that she wasn’t happy with the way she was treated on set. We hope that Beharie will find a project that is more suited to her needs and that allows her to shine.
Luckily for fans, Beharie’s health and career have bounced back from her unhappy experience on Sleepy Hollow. She recently appeared on the excellent Hulu adaptation of Little Fires Everywhere and starred as Turquoise Jones in the film Miss Juneteenth.
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