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Frozen's Idina Menzel criticised for 'wrist-slitting' joke by mental health charity

Slammed... Idina Menzel has been pulled up over 'wrist-slit' comment - Credit: PA
Slammed… Idina Menzel has been pulled up over ‘wrist-slit’ comment – Credit: PA

‘Frozen’ star Idina Menzel has come under fire for joking about ‘slitting her wrists’ during an interview.

Menzel, who voiced Elsa in the Oscar-winning Disney movie, was promoting her new TV movie version of the classic weepy ‘Beaches’ when she was asked what music makes her cry.

“You’d think because I’m a singer I listen to a lot of music, which I do, but there’s certain music that I think is so devastatingly beautiful that it’s too painful to listen to some times,” she said.

“There’s this Meshell Ndegeocello album, Bitter, that I just can’t listen to. It’s so good. It makes me just want to slit my wrists.”

Though throwaway, the remark did not go unnoticed.

“Self harm and suicide is a very serious situation. Some people may not realise the impact of that type of statement,” Jessica Cruz, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in the US, told the Press Association.

“It shows a lack of education around the pain families and individuals go through and further stigmatises mental health.

(Credit: Disney)
(Credit: Disney)

“It’s joking about self harm when self harm is not a joke.”

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time that Menzel has used the phrase, having been quoted using it in a number of other interviews in the past.

On seeing billboard posters of shows she failed to get on, she told the New York Times in 2014: “It’s like, take me home and just slit my wrists now.”

Then in another interview with Metro around her festive album ‘Christmas Wishes’, she said: “I suppose if Christmas makes you depressed this album might make you want to slit your wrists.”

Coming to her defence, Steve Mendelsohn, of the suicide prevention charity the Trevor Project, said: “While the Trevor Project believes her choice of words could have been better, we also firmly believe that Idina did not mean to imply that she would harm herself nor did she intend to encourage self-harm or suicidal tendencies in anyone else.”

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