Why actor Gabourey Sidibe calls Twitter the 'worst evil' in her life

From her struggle with depression to her rise to fame to her time working as a phone sex “talker” at the “phone sexery” to her love-hate relationship with Twitter, actor Gabourey Sidibe shares her most personal stories in a witty, new memoir.

The actor, best known for her Academy Award-nominated role in the movie “Precious,” wrote “This is Just My Face: Try to Stare” without the help of a professional ghostwriter because she felt it was important for her to tell her own life story.

“I’ve always been a writer and it kind of made the most sense to write my own story because I think my voice is very specific to me,” Sidibe told CTV’s Your Morning on Monday.

Sidibe said the best compliment she’s received about the book so far is that reading it is like engaging her in conversation.

On Twitter:

Sidibe revealed that she was initially reluctant to join Twitter because she assumed no one would want to hear all of her thoughts all of the time. She eventually relented and signed up for the social media site because she wanted to dispel a rumour that she was feuding with another actor.

After that, the actor said she was hooked.

“It is the most fun, worst evil in my life. It’s really, really fun but I have so much anxiety around Twitter,” Sidibe said.

The actor said she hopes that other Twitter users will be nice to her, but when they aren’t she has to immediately delete their comments.

“I have to block them immediately because then my pettiness will flare up and I’ll want to say something not nice to them,” she said.

On being seen:

Sidibe writes about struggling with eating disorders, fat -shaming, anxiety and “being seen” by her family while she was growing up. She said she still has problems with her family really seeing her and understanding what she’s going through.

“They didn’t see that I was depressed. I’ve actually been showing signs of depression since I was around nine years old and nothing happened,” Sidibe shared.

Eventually the actor said she had to look within before she was able to seek help for her depression.

On being famous:

Sidibe calls her rise to fame “all right” and said she never really wanted to become famous, but “fame-adjacent.” She said she’s able to keep some of her anonymity by using apps for errands, such as grocery shopping.

“I love apps. I do everything on an app. I haven’t talked to a person since 2007,” Sidibe said with a laugh.

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