This is how actress Amanda Bynes has changed, from television prodigy to anonymity as a manicurist

It’s been nearly a decade since Amanda Bynes was last seen on screen. The one who was one of the actresses of reference for the young public and star of the Nickelodeon channel appeared in the applauded Rumors and lies (2010) in what would be his last film role.

With her blonde hair, green eyes, eternal smile, great sense of humor and a charisma that few could match, the actress became the idol of an entire generation. However, her problems in her personal life and drug addictions ended one of the most promising careers in Hollywood. A decade in which the actress has faced all kinds of challenges, and that today has led her to have an anonymous life.

Amanda Bynes began her career as an advertising model as a young girl, but it was with her role in all that (1996), a sketch comedy where he began when he was only ten years old and in which he shared the leading role with actors like Kenan Thompson or Nick Cannon. A triumph that earned him his own program shortly after, The Amanda Show (1999), which led her to become the actress of reference for the entire young generation of the late 90s.

A meteoric career that was just beginning, and that is that the young Amanda had acting talent, as a comedian, singing and dancing. In 2002, she made the jump to Warner Bros., where she starred for four seasons. What I like about youalong with Jennie Garth (90210) and some of the great teen titles for the time: a dream for her (2003), she is the boy (2006), hairspray (2007) or Rumors and lies (2010), for which he won rave reviews. However, this would be the beginning of the end of her career in Hollywood. The actress herself acknowledged that shooting the film had been a “test” for her “fragile” mental health.

“I couldn’t stand my appearance in the movie and I didn’t like my performance. I was totally convinced that I needed to finish my career after seeing it,” she told the magazine. Paper in 2018, “I was high on marijuana when I saw it, but for some reason, it started to affect me. I don’t know if it was drug-induced psychosis or what, but it affected my brain in a totally different way than other people. It changed completely my way of seeing things”.

A hell that lasted a decade

An identity crisis that marked the beginning of one of the darkest and most media chapters in the life of Amanda Bynes. It was the year 2012 when the actress had her first run-in with the law, being arrested up to three times for drunk driving in just five months; In addition, she was arrested a fourth for driving with an expired license. Her agent, her publicist and her lawyer abandoned the actress to her fate, so she decided to go to New York and start a new life away from Hollywood.

However, it did not help much, because the actress continued her descent down the spiral of destruction in the city of skyscrapers, having run-ins with the police mainly due to her drug abuse. After the police intervention in 2013, the actress entered a rehabilitation center, where she spent six months. It did not help much, but it got worse, since a year later, he accused his parents of abuse: “My father abused me physically and verbally. He called me ‘ugly’ and asked me if I wanted to have sex with him. If I said no, they forced me to live with him,” he accused, to retract hours later, assuring that a “microchip in his brain” had made him say all that.

The damage was already done. His brothers and his mother positioned themselves next to his father, denying his claims. Later, the actress attributed her problems to the pressure she experienced in her childhood in Hollywood.

Shortly after, Bynes tried to recompose herself by starting a new project: studying Fashion. To do this, she returned to Los Angeles, where she enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. However, she continued with her addiction, which caused her to be admitted to a rehabilitation center in 2014 and later in 2019.

A case of legal guardianship different from that of Britney Spears

Since 2013, Amanda Bynes has been subject to a legal guardianship that many have wanted to compare with the one that Britney Spears had to endure. Her mother, Lynn Bynes, is the one who has been in charge of carrying all aspects of her life and her fortune, valued at more than three million euros, since then. Now, with a difference from Britney’s: in this case it was Amanda Bynes who wanted someone to control her assets.

In February of this year, the actress made it clear that she no longer wanted to be under guardianship, so she presented the relevant documents to be able to regain control of her life, something that became effective last March thanks to the health reports and positive evaluations by specialists.

Start of a new life

Currently, the one who was the biggest child star of Nickelodeon leads a life totally away from the spotlight. She met her fiancé, Paul Michael, in 2019; and they got engaged to marry. A relationship with which she was delighted, but neither her followers nor the couple’s lawyer, who believed that she could harm her, especially after the rumors of drug relapse. The couple ended their relationship, only to get back together soon after.

During this year, Bynes has started a new project: she has enrolled in a cosmetology school to become a nail technician. The actress, who is now 36 years old, lives her life away from the spotlight, although she has stated that she would not mind returning to the small screen. At the moment, she has made her first steps in music with Diamondswhich he recorded last May with the Californian rapper Precise.