In this podcast, SureSpace ADHD app founder, Anish Suri, speaks with Maja Bloom, best known for her role in Fantastic Beasts. Maja opens up about her personal journey with ADHD and autism, from her early experiences with modelling to her recent diagnosis and how it has shaped her creative path. Together, Anish and Maja discuss the unique challenges and superpowers of being neurodivergent, the importance of finding safe spaces, and how humour and creativity can help break down stigma.
Anish: Maya, please can you tell us a little bit about your journey with ADHD and autism?
Maja: Definitely, when I was younger, and I worked as a model. One of my friends – a photographer – kept mentioning a TV series called ‘The Bridge’ to me, and that series is probably very important for women who are neurodivergent in the UK, because thanks to that series a woman got diagnosed, and that was exactly the case with me. This series is quite old and is about a TV detective who’s basically bullied for being different at work and she’s very good at spotting details and she just says what she thinks. My friends kept telling me I was just like her. So, I had a chat with the doctor, and then he told me there was a long wait, so I kind of gave up hope. But pushing and pushing my new GP really helped me after 5 years on waiting list.
On 30th November 2023, I got confirmed as autistic and I was told that as with the majority of people with autism, quite a large number of people with Autism have also have a form of ADHD. I was then advised by my assessment team to get an ADHD diagnosis that will probably take another two or three years, so it hasn’t been officially confirmed, but I was told “you have most probably have AuDHD, which is autism like the form of ADHD. In most cases, I would say neurodiverse people have both – so you have autistic people who have some things or parts of ADHD (I know exactly which bits I have and which I don’t), or you have people who might be ADHD and then have some bits of autism. It’s not very clear and it’s actually quite common to be on this AuDHD spectrum where you are autistic with bits of ADHD. You can definitely see it on my desk because it’s got 72 different post it notes, and my laptop has 25 different tabs open.
Anish: So, you’re a hugely creative individual across the three different forms of creativity that you’ve got. Tell me, how did it all begin and how do how did you harness your creativity?
Maja: So, this is going to sound like a huge stereotype, but I felt that I was different. I never really managed to fit in and the only way I saw as a kid that I could fit in was being a Jester and using comedy. I think that’s why I somehow always did comedy, but I officially started stand-up comedy a year ago.
Then I would also write things. Music was always and has always been my first love. We had shown and at one of them I was playing this very dramatic piece, and I made one mistake and at age 10 I just slammed the piano and just left. That’s when I realized that being a concert pianist was not really on the cards for me, but I did enjoy music. I always sang and performed on stage and then had to vary it really. because of the reality of life and I thought it’s never going to happen. So, I worked in finance and I used to write songs. I’m still technically a songwriter but it was always there. My mum is a poet so maybe that explains a lot. My granddad loved crime novels and had a collection of I think 500 special crime novels from all around the world. So, I guess that that’s creativity in family. My brother is also a writer and writes scripts to video games, so I guess it’s in the genes.
There are days when I think being creative means so many different things. There are days when I don’t think I’m very creative but to another person what I do might be creative, so it’s also what you call creativity. I guess I always felt like I was a bit different and had to do things in a different way, and being a freelancer is part of that. I think a lot of people who are neurodivergent understand that it’s about building the world in your own way, rather than sticking to you don’t know as much. For example, in autism we need routines, and they might be different to the rest of society.
Anish: You’ve accomplished a lot, so can you tell us a bit about the achievements that you’ve accomplished?
Maja: Oh gosh, so obviously Fantastic Beasts is the most well-known one. Of course, my character is Slytherin, so I love Slytherin. As an actor, you do castings and then one of casting suddenly leads to a huge project which we didn’t even know of when the casting started, so I just did the casting like any tape. You meet a casting director as you do with any other project, and then it ends up being this massive thing. I remember I didn’t even know it was that massive because we just thought “it’s just a movie” or “it’s just a thing to film”. You work on so many different projects you just think “it’s just you know one of those” and then you realize later on what it is. So probably Fantastic Beasts has been the biggest so far, or the most known with amazing fans. It’s a pleasure and honour to have amazing fans of the Wizarding World. Also Star Wars and a lot of smaller and bigger comedy projects.
My songs are now I would on the back burner, so I’ve been doing more acting now than singing. You work on one thing and then you come back to another thing, so I have a jazz show in a week with my jazz band, so music and singing is always there. I do hope to produce my songs properly and maybe re-record them properly.
I would call this a huge achievement. I love traveling and I hope to travel to every single country in the world. I think that actually helps me to stay creative and sane in this crazy world, so I would say that is an achievement. Travelling to me is really important and I once had a collection of over 300 different teas from all around the world – so if you want to know how to make a good cup of tea, ask me first.
Anish: Often a lot of people discuss ADHD and autism as a superpower, can you tell me a bit about that?
Maja: I’m learning it. For me, I’m 44 now and I’m still learning it. Young people now get diagnosed much earlier and they live with it. I know comedians or friends who maybe were diagnosed much earlier, usually male.
Until 30 years ago, autism was exclusively male, and they embrace it and live with it. For me, it was living with something and suspecting it’s probably something that has a name, but a lot of times thinking there’s something wrong with me. It’s literally been a year of just thinking “okay, I belong to a club. Finally, I’m the cool kid” and also learning how to embrace it.
I do think it’s a stereotyped, but I do think it’s a superpower. Someone very wise said that autism or neurodivergence is like having a different operating system, like Mac versus Windows. I think once you know – and I’m still learning – you can kind of use what works for you and see what helps you survive situations that are stressful. Everybody’s different on this spectrum Smells and noise are extremely triggering, so I can then manage it because I know in the past I thought something’s wrong with me, but now I know that my brain is slightly different and yes smells are a trigger, so I can manage it better.
So, I think it can be superpower because once you embrace it, you know part of yourself and can say “this is what I am, and this is how I operate”. I remember in my 20s living in London, I felt there was so much pressure especially on women I to go and party. I remember going to parties and having to recover from them for 3 days because it was physically and mentally exhausting on all levels. Maybe it’s also that I am aware of something now and I can say “I cannot do this. This is too much for me. That will exhaust me. I need my rest” or “I need my sleep”, because I know that with that, I can manage it better, rather than thinking something’s wrong with me and why I’m so tired. In that case, it can be a superpower.
Once embrace it and say to yourself “what am I going to do with this gift”. It’s a bit like in all these movies, you have superheroes who have magical powers and if they don’t know how to use it, it will harm someone, but if you know how to use it and nurture it, it can be a blessing. But as long as you’re open about it.
Thankfully, we now have much more awareness, and we are much more open about this and understanding, so hopefully it will be to say, “this doesn’t work for me”. You don’t have to obey certain societal pressure saying you have to do certain things.
Anish: There’s obviously a lot of neurodiverse challenges that we all know about, but can you shed some light on them?
Maja: For me personally, again I would say I’m still learning. Everybody has different challenges. For me and I suspect for a lot of people, it’s having 17 different things open at the same time and managing time and my workload. That’s really stressful for me. Sometimes I genuinely forget to eat and that can have an effect on my health so my doctor once said, “if you don’t eat, you’ll be on a drip next week” because I just wouldn’t make time. I would have 17 meetings or calls that I would just do, and then I would realise it’s 9pm and that I should eat. I was anaemic about three times, to the point my GP saying, “you’re going to end up in a hospital, you’ve got to have to eat”. It sounds crazy but that’s the reality of having 17 different tabs open, and I always have something to do. I don’t understand how you cannot have something to do because there’s always something to do until I have 17 Oscars and two Grammys. It’s a good thing but you have to again harness and say to yourself “you need rest” or “you need to stop”. So that’s one thing for me.
Also, noise for me – that is the autistic side. Noise and smells can really affect me to. I used to live in this house where ventilation was really you off. Something was wrong and whenever someone cooked something downstairs, it would just penetrate my room and I would either run out to the forest nearby, but if I couldn’t it was just hiding in the bathroom nearly crying, basically howling for 10 minutes because I couldn’t put up with it. It sounds crazy but that’s how sensitive my brain is different smells. I will smell things like I’m like a dog. I once woke everyone up in a hostel in Iran because I said there was a gas leak. They then called an engineer, and he said there was a gas leak. So, it’s a blessing and a curse. I also try to manage noise I always have my noise cancelling headphones.
For me, being on time is also super important. If I’m late, then I have to just tell myself to calm down. I think neurodivergence is like a coin. You can be on opposite sides of the coin. You can have two people who are on opposite sides of that coin right. Then you can have the same person who has two opposite sides of one condition, and they coexist.
Anish: Can you keep it constrained?
Maja: Yes, you can. You manage it. I think the more awareness there is about this and the more we talk to others, the more we can be open about this. I think you then learn what works for you and what doesn’t.
I teach English when I’m not on set or on stage. I’ve got students from 47 different countries, and they hate it. They want me to give them one pill that will work for everyone and ideally if I could just put the language in their brain. But you always have to see what works for you. So I would say – read everything and educate yourself. Ask specialists as well and your friends as well.
Anish: So would you say those are your coping mechanisms? Finding specialists and people?
Maja: Yes, for me – I mentioned it in a show I have called ‘foot putter’- my coping mechanism is finding your safe space. Everybody should have their safe space or their safe human or their safe music, and I think it’s very important when where if you’re in a situation when you cannot cope. I hope that everybody can find their safe space and that is a place where they are okay and they’re safe, and it’s a place where you are nurtured. For me, that was Mr Forest who was my best friend in Wembley. He was better than a lot of humans and was always there for me and he would listen to me. I would go there and walk the same path every time I was stressed. This was Mr Forest and he was amazing. I have safe songs and safe smells – for me, that’s lavender. When I’m stressed, if I smell lavender that calms me down, so again you find these things that work for you. Coping mechanism-wise, I love some perfumes that I have – honestly, they help a lot.
That’s exactly what we’re trying to do with SureSpace. We’re trying to create a safe space community and it’s so amazing to have you as part of that, so thank you so much for joining and being a part of it. We’re trying to create a space where you can feel comfortable. You can join and you can attend every single event or none of them, and just be a part of the interactions with other people in the app. There’s really a lot to the ecosystem that we’re building here, and it is open to anybody with ADHD or Autism or even people who are just have an inclination.
I think it’s very important to have. When I was a kid, this is 40 years ago, we didn’t know a lot of things. I don’t think my mum or my dad knew, so you try to push someone into this generic kind of category, But now we know more and we can say, if you are neurodivergent, maybe there is a safer space for you here. It helps to have this place where you can say “I don’t have to be like this”, “I don’t have to be like everyone else”, “I can just do my own thing” and “I’m safe within that”. I think it’s very important to have that kind of space.
Anish: Absolutely, and can you tell our viewers how you’re involved in SureSpace?
Maja: We’re creating this event with a number of comedians who are neurodivergent, or they’ve got a neurodivergent spice about them – male, female, non-binary alike. I think comedy and humour is a great thing. It helps us a lot in life, so I think if we can talk about ADHD in a humorous way, hopefully we’re taking the stigma away. That is sort of the main goal. I know there are challenges – don’t get me wrong – there are situations when my autism interferes with my life, but if you can say “okay, let’s see what I can how I can laugh about this”, and reduce the fear of ADHD and make it a bit more approachable, I think that’s a great thing.
Maja takes to the stage with SureSpace on Thursday 23rd January 2025 at the October Gallery, London. Along with Maja, the lineup includes Charise Johnson, Sham Shakil, Stacey Edwards and Robert Dan, with MC Danny Scott. Book your tickets at the link here.
