Lamorne Morris Struggled with ‘Wild Bout of Depression’ During New Girl’s Iconic Prince Episode

Lamorne Morris says he was going through a depressive episode when Prince filmed his famous cameo on a 2014 episode of New Girl — sharing that it’s “my favorite” episode but was “the worst episode to film” because of his own struggles.

“I just remember doing a scene, then going in my trailer and just crying for no reason. ‘Wow. Man, why am I so’ — everything was going great. Like, everything was going great,” Morris, 41, shared during an appearance on the Nov. 5 episode of Podcrushed.

Morris — who played beloved goofball Winston on New Girl —  shared at the time that “work was going great. Everybody was healthy in my family. It was like, ‘What am I complaining about?’ ”

“I didn’t know. I couldn’t pinpoint it to anything,” he said, sharing that his then-girlfriend “helped me clean up my diet. She started cooking for me — only healthy foods, and making me juice in the morning, fresh juice and things like that.”

Morris — who won the Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series for Fargo this year — shared that he started going for hikes and being more active, “and before I know it, those [depressive] days are over.”

“Once I cleaned up my diet, the mood shifted,” said Morris, who starred on New Girl until it ended its seven-year run in 2018.

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Morris shared that with his personal struggles behind him, he’s able to look back fondly on working with Prince, who died just two years after appearing on New Girl at 57.

“There was so much fanfare around it and so much mystique around him. And when you meet him, you’re like, ‘I see why. This man is illuminating. And he’s got so many tassels and zippers.’ ”

“He was such a nice — that was the most impressive part. He was so nice and just soft-spoken and very, like, kind and gentle in the way he would talk to people,” Morris said. “So that was a really cool experience.”

In an October episode of her podcast The Mess Around, Morris’ costar Hannah Simone said Prince wanted to get on New Girl because he had a crush on her. “He tried for a very long time to find a way to be in the same room together,” Simone, 44, said in a conversation with New Girl costume designer Debra McGuire.

New Girl is available to stream on Hulu.