'The Sopranos'actress Lorraine Bracco is fronting an American campaign to raise awareness of mental illness.
Bracco, who plays psychiatrist Dr Jennifer Melfi on the US TV show, wants to highlight the issue following her own battle against clinical depression.
"If you break your leg, you have it fixed," she said. If you have a toothache, you go to the dentist. "When it comes to mental health, people think they can just get over it."
Bracco will appear in a series of commercials for the drug company Pfizer, and is also involved in a website highlighting the campaign.
The 50-year-old fought depression throughout the 1990s when she was involved in a bitter custody case for her daughter with ex-husband Harvey Keitel and was declared bankrupt when her relationship with actor Edward James Olmos collapsed.
"I just had a lot of really big things that kept pounding me and I would let all these things rule my life instead of my dreams and wishes," Bracco said.
"I was doing everything. The laundry was done. The children had food. They were driven to school and extracurricular activities, but I was joyless in it. It just became a chore for me."
Bracco who was nominated for an Oscar in 1990 for her role in 'Goodfellas', begins filming the sixth series of The Sopranos this spring.
