When finding a state of flow between wellbeing and working within the creative industries, Will Best is no stranger to putting his best foot forward regarding its nuance. It's become a state of mind for Will, focusing and prioritising joy and balance. We sit down with Will for his HATC digital cover to discuss the OG Big Brother and our potential to manage anxiety and prioritise what brings you peace and joy.

Alice: What a great shoot we all had! It was so much fun!

Will: Everyone did such a fantastic job!

Alice: It's always such a lovely thing to do things that we enjoy. When it comes to finding work, doing something you love is key, or at least for me, having joy in what we do is essential. How have you found joy in your work, and how important has that element been?

Will: It's precisely that thing of wanting to do something that I enjoyed, or at least wanting to do something fun. When I first finished uni, I started working in advertising. I worked for a big advertising agency up in Manchester before I moved down to London and got a job at an agency in London, working on the Nike account. If you want to work in advertising, which I thought maybe I would do, working on Nike is your dream job. You know you've made it, but I realised on day two that it was not my dream job. And even though you're working adjacent to an amazing creative advertising campaign, my job was the middleman between the client and the creatives. I was absolutely terrible at it. And I don't know whether I was awful at it because I realised I didn't want to do it or whether I didn't want to do it because I was terrible at it, but either way, I was beyond miserable. I think it was made worse because it was such a competitive industry at the time, and I knew how lucky I was to get this job. The fact that I was not enjoying it felt like a terrible waste. I used to get the tube into Shoreditch and Liverpool Street from Finsbury Park, and with every interaction I had on my way to work, I would wish I had that person's job. Everything else seemed better than what I was doing. And it made me realise that while I'm still young and footloose, I should do something just fun, which might open doors to other things. At the time, two of my biggest passions were music and comedy – and I'm neither a musician nor a comedian.

I used to watch T4 all the time at uni, and I used to think they were funny and that they were interviewing bands and musicians. They were also all getting jobs on the radio from the back of this. I thought that was where I wanted to be, so I gave myself a year. I quit my job and gave myself a year to try and get on the telly, but specifically, not just on the telly for telly's sake; I wanted to be around music and all kinds of things that I was interested in. And then a series of incredibly fortunate events all fell into place. At the end of the year, I got my first job on MTV, before channel four. But I'm deeply aware the world was different back then, and it was so much down to luck.

Alice: It's a harsh industry to break into, especially with all the technology and mediums we have now, let alone when it comes to the financial side of things.

Will: When I was first starting out, the thing that gave me the impetus to be able to quit that job in advertising was that a friend of mine at a party, I was talking to him about how I'm thinking of, like, I hate my job, and I'm thinking of this TV thing, which seemed like a mad idea. He knew somebody who was casting for these educational videos for English language students in Germany and Italy. He put me in touch with his person, and I went to this casting and got this job presenting these random videos. It was an incredibly low budget, but it was paid. The pay from those videos was the equivalent of six weeks' salary in my advertising job, meaning I could pay the rent if I quit that and have time to find more work. Back then, rent was cheap. You could live somewhere in London. I could afford to work part-time in bars to support myself for that year and still have the time to get a showreel together. So, I interviewed bands and did random things to get a showreel together. But nowadays, unless you have parents who live in London, it's really hard.

Alice: You've since come to start hosting Big Brother, which is obviously iconic for so many of us. The early series were the height of reality TV when we were growing up. It's so interesting, and even when it stopped, iconic moments have carried over onto new social media to the point that the next generation still knows about them! I'm talking about Gemma Collin's iconic moments.

Will: Yeah, Big Brother got a new lease of life on TikTok before we relaunched it. It hadn't been on TV for six years, but the memes kept it alive, and young people were excited even if they didn't watch it the first time. We knew there was a lot of pressure—fans are passionate—but we're fans, too, so no one put more pressure on the show than we did.

Alice: Especially in this cancel culture era—it must have been nerve-wracking.

Will: Definitely. But we have systems in place. If someone crosses a line, they're warned or removed, and the show continues. The arbiter of what is and isn't acceptable is the public's take on it all. The welfare of everybody in the house is the most important thing. And as soon as somebody says or does something that makes other people in the house feel they can't continue their experience without feeling, you know, afraid, that's the line. In the most recent celeb seriesMickey was ejected, and it was discussed, it was dealt with, and then we carried on with the show. There was the safety net, you know, and then everybody else left in the house could have their moment and flourish. The point of Big Brother is to reflect real people's views. The public decides if they like someone. The show's always surprising—every season, it delivers drama, laughter, and moments you couldn't script. That's why it's still going after all these years.

Alice: Do you still find yourself surprised by each series?

Will: The lesson I learned quickly and knew as a fan of the show is to trust the format. It will always throw surprises at you. You cannot script it. If you sat down and tried to imagine the arc of a series or what people would say and do, it's literally impossible. In every series, you will be surprised. In every series, there will be drama, there will be laughter, and there will be everything you need for an incredible entertainment experience. It will consistently deliver. And there's a reason why Big Brother is one of the most enduring TV shows in the world. Big Brother has been on in multiple countries every part of the year, without fail, since it started.

Alice: It's so true—Big Brother has stood the test of time, unlike other shows that fizzled out. And it's great that you prioritise housemates' welfare. On a personal level, when it comes to your own wellbeing and having boundaries, how do you manage to look after your own mental health?

Will: I think for me it's a kind of an ongoing struggle, really, like I'm aware of the areas that I struggle with in terms of mental health, and that is around anxiety, health anxiety, those sorts of things. I know that I catastrophise. But I've become more adept at self-reflection. I'm not afraid of talking to my fiancée about it or my friends and family about it. I found that that has got me to a certain point in terms of managing it, but I am terrible at taking the next step and consistently working on it more meaningfully. I've struggled with anxiety and health anxiety for years. I've tried EMDR therapy, which was really helpful, but I haven't kept up with it as I should. Life is so busy—TV, radio, other projects—and I always put myself last on the list. But I know that prioritising my mental health a little more would help me do everything else better.

Alice: I totally get that. Sometimes, you need a break from therapy to live your life and be in a space and breathe. My mom always tells me that if I'm trying my best—going to appointments, taking meds, doing what I can—that's enough. Perfection isn't realistic, and we need to give ourselves grace.

Will: Absolutely. I hope to set a good example by being honest about it, but there's always room to improve.

Alice: Definitely. Everyone has their own little joys. For example, I love F1 on Sundays and grabbing coffee. What's yours?

Film & TV

Isabella Wei

Linnea Berthelsen

Jen Affleck

Courtney Taylor

Pierson Fodé

Ernest Kingsley Jr.

Harry Trevaldwyn

Bobbi Althoff

Lou Llobell

Will Merrick

Will Best

Madeline Brewer