The film Apollo 13 taught me how to survive heartbreak — SkimNews
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- Elf Lyons describes how the 1995 Ron Howard film Apollo 13 became her "breakup movie" after her relationship with her fiancé ended in a concrete hotel room under a Sydney flightpath in April 2025, 15 minutes before she was due to perform to 2,000 people
- Lyons rejected friends' suggestions of romantic weepies such as Call Me By Your Name, Twilight, and Blue Valentine, writing that "words mean nothing to a depressed mime artist" and she "had to be a horse later"
- Throughout 2025, Lyons toured Australia and the UK with a show in which she pretended to be a horse while simultaneously relearning three shows for the Edinburgh fringe
- Lyons cast her WhatsApp groups as her personal "Mission Control": her sister lent and lost most of her clothes, her brother told her he loved her "more than he had in his entire life," and friends drove her to every show and made sure she ate
- Lyons is performing "Elf Lyons Is the Woman on the Edge" at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, through 31 August
Why it matters: The piece doubles as a personal essay and a promotion for Lyons's Edinburgh Fringe run, positioning Apollo 13 not as a space film but as a framework for processing rupture — her stated takeaway is that survival, like the 1970 mission, is about trusting your team and focusing on the next task rather than romantic catharsis.
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