Spirit of Giving: Vaughan actor shares heartbreak, offers hope

Michael Pillarella wants others to know there is life after depression

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 20, 2017
By Tim Kelly

When he sunk to the depths of depression recently, Vaughan actor Michael Pillarella did what came naturally.

He made a short film about his experience.

And the five-minute spoken word video, shot in a church with dramatic mood music accompanying him, has gone viral on Facebook with over 80,000 views, 900 shares and even a live performance before a sold-out audience at Toronto's Drake Hotel.

Pillarella, 27, tells about a very difficult period he went through in his life. It has reached people around the world.

"Through personal experience, everybody deals with some form of mental illness," Pillarella said.

"I speak about the impact it can have on you mentally and physically and how it can impact your life and the emotions you go through when you're at that point in your life," he said.

He said he has received messages about the video from South America, Central America and has had people reaching out to him from Iran as well.

Pillarella began acting at 19 when he worked on a short film Stealin' Home which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival short corner.

He then made the short film Pizza Bagel, a mash-up of Italian and Jewish cultures that he starred in. Pizza Bagel is being made into a feature film which begins production in the summer of 2018.

Pillarella's latest projects have included lead roles in The Detectives Club: New Orleans, a series he said that focuses on real -life events where he plays a real New Orleans detective. He also was in a couple of episodes of the series 12 Monkeys on the Syfy network which featured Christopher Lloyd of Back to the Future and Taxi fame.

But he seems extremely proud to have made this very personal short video which has struck a real chord with people he hasn't met, far and wide.

While much of the video deals with his pain, he does leave the viewer with hope.

"The end of the video has an uplifting message that as the dust settles, you come out of the storm stronger, there are still good things out there in the world you can cling to," Pillarella said.