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The role helped him process the grief he was holding onto after losing his mother in 2016, Henry said.

\"He allowed me an opportunity to truly vent, and to truly lay some of those burdens down in a way that I hadn't really been able to with other characters from my past,\" he explained.

\"PHOTO:
Myesha Evon Gardner/Essence
PHOTO: Brian Tyree Henry is the March "Of the Essence," cover star.
>

While he said that acting has had a positive effect on his healing process, Brian said he never wants to confuse it for therapy.

\"This is therapeutic, but therapy is therapy,\" he said of portraying different characters. \"And I want to encourage as many people as possible, especially Black people, to go to therapy.\"

\"There is nothing weak about feeling. There's nothing weak about being a Black man who asks for help, or who actually doesn't know the answer to how to get on the other side,\" he added.

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