When Steve Burns left his lead role on 'Blues Clues' back in 2001 no one knew why, with some even speculating he died. Now very much alive, Burns has revealed the real reason he left the hit TV show.
In a recent interview with Variety, Burns said during his final years on the show he felt he was getting too old - he was losing hair and "didn't want to have to wear a wig on TV". Now, over twenty years later, Steve says there was a much bigger reason he left the show, one that only became apparent once he could step away and look back.
“I wasn’t going to be boyish anymore,” he said first, before opening up about his mindset on the show.
“I didn’t know it yet, but I was the happiest depressed person in North America. I was struggling with severe clinical depression the whole time I was on that show.”
“It was my job to be utterly and completely full of joy and wonder at all times, and that became impossible. I was able to dig and find something that felt authentic to me that was good enough to be on the show, but after years of and years of going to the well without replenishing it, there was a cost,” Burns explained.
He continued, saying that he struggled to find a viable solution to his mental health problems.
“My strategy had been: ‘Het, you got a great thing going, so just fight it!” he continued. “Turns out, you don’t fight depression you collect it. After I left ‘Blue’s Clues’, there was a long period of healing.”
Steve is feeling a lot better now, which is great to see! Last year he addressed his former friends and audience with a video on Nick Jr’s Twitter. The video has gotten almost 2 million likes since it came out, mostly because of how authentic, emotional, and nostalgia-inducing it is.
Burns is revisiting his role as Blue’s helper in the Paramount+ film ‘Blue’s Big City Adventure!’ which came out last week.
