GUY PEARCE - PEARCE'S SUCCESS LED TO BREAKDOWN

Australian actor GUY PEARCE blames his instantaneous Hollywood success for causing his mental breakdown in 2001

The 38-year-old was exhausted after gruelling filming schedules shooting MEMENTO, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO and THE TIME MACHINE and began cutting himself off from the world.

He says, "I'd been working a lot and things gradually built up. It got to the point where I was only comfortable on my own, I hated everything and everyone - except my wife, of course.

"I kept thinking, 'God, I've got to do something about this. Maybe there's a whole load of s**t from my childhood that needs sorting out.'"

Pearce eventually returned to Australia and underwent a programme of therapy and spent a month studying Buddhism in a remote wooden hut.

He adds, "I needed a long lie-down. I just tried to sort myself out."