Photos By Ella Collura
By Eden Savoy
Steve Burns, an Emmy-nominated actor known for his starring role in the children’s television show “Blue’s Clues,” hosted a lecture in Weber Auditorium that focused on mental health and the transition into adulthood. He used his personal experiences to shed light on the common struggle with mental health. Students and a limited number of the public attended the lecture on Thursday, Nov. 7. Burns revealed he struggled with clinical depression and battled against rumors about himself that were widely believed no matter what he did to combat them. He also had no experience with children and often felt out of place or like he shouldn’t be there at work.
“I certainly felt that I was not qualified to be there, that I shouldn’t be there, you know? That this should be the job of a child specialist, or a teacher maybe but certainly not me. I don’t deserve this wonderful job,” Burns said, “What I did is I fought all these feelings and fought this heaviness and dug deep every day to get to this sense of wonder that I talked about, for that sense of joy to create that connection, and digging deeply like that every day and not having any way of replenishing that, that really burnt me out.”
Burns discussed how difficult it was for him to play Steve on “Blue’s Clues” because his feelings did not match the persona of the character. “Right away it became difficult for me to be that character… right away I knew that it was my job to show up and be the happiest man in America, right? I knew that it was my job to dig deep and find all of this enthusiasm and this sense of authentic wonder and joy that I decided based on this character, and I knew that if that wonder and that joy wasn’t there then that connection wouldn’t be there. I worked really hard, especially on that connection with the camera, to make that feel real and make that feel alive,” Burns said.
Realizing he should no longer struggle alone, Burns asked for help. He advised audience members to do the same. Burns emphasized, “Ask for help. You are in a help rich environment. I can also tell you that there is no shame in asking for help.”
In addition to his work on “Blue’s Clues,” Burns has made a notable mark in entertainment as a key component in the Paramount+ feature film “Blue’s Big City Adventure.” He is also a musician, having released two albums— “Songs For Dustmites” and “Foreverywhere”—and wrote and performed the theme song for the CBS sitcom “Young Sheldon.”
Today, Burns lives in New York where he writes and directs for the show “Blue’s Clues and You” and continues to be a voiceover artist.
