David Harbour has spoken about the importance of learning from our “mistakes” and “slip-ups” in the wake of Lily Allen’s explosive divorce album, West End Girl.
The British singer recorded the album, her first in seven years, after the 2024 breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things star Harbour.
Covering themes such as cheating, gaslighting, and sex addiction, the album has been described by Allen as “a mixture of fact and fiction”.
The former couple have been under scrutiny since the album’s release, with fans speculating over the nature of their relationship and the cause of their split.
Harbour did not reference their separation in his new interview with Esquire, but vaguely spoke of how accepting “mistakes” and “pain” is an important part of life.
Asked whether he would change anything about the last five decades, the 50-year-old told the publication: “That’s such a hard question – the question of regret, or something. I would change either everything or nothing.
“You either accept your path completely and realise that even the pain and the slip-ups and the mistakes are all part of the journey, and that there’s truth and growth, wisdom and deeper empathy and connection in all that.”
He continued: “It’s kind of like a house of cards, the minute you try to change one thing you kind of have to change it all.”
“[As an artist] it’s about incorporating your life into something that you can give to other people so that they can have a cathartic response to their lives,” he added.
“If you’ve never been through anything, what do you really have to offer? If I were to change anything I’d change everything, and just make my life happy and silly and like, whatever, and then I wouldn’t be an artist anymore. And that would suck.”
When asked about the next 50 years of his life, Harbour said he wants to be involved in projects that are “complex and rich”.
Of life beyond his career, he added: “Then, of course, there’s personal stuff that I want to do, and people that I want to love, and be good to and nurture, things like that.”
He and Allen split in 2024 after four years of marriage. Last week, the Brooklyn townhouse they shared – which features in the lyrics of Allen’s song “West End Girl” about the dissolution of a relationship – hit the market for $8m (£6.1m).
Harbour will return to screens later this month in the much-anticipated fifth and final season of Stranger Things, reprising his role as Hopper. The first four episodes land on Netflix on 26 November, followed by three episodes on Christmas, and the finale on New Year’s Eve.
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