Conan: It was an 'anxious, depressing' time

Conan O'Brien is spilling a little more about what he was going through last year when Jay Leno bumped him from "The Tonight Show."

At a premiere Sunday of a documentary called "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop," the Brookline native revealed that January 2010 was a difficult time for him -- one in which he didn't sleep much and lost 15 pounds.

"It's a swirly cone of crazy emotions," he said fm the red carpet at the music festival South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. "It was anxious, depressing but also euphoric and exciting. It was not just one emotion, it was a lot of emotion. I was confused but also really excited by new possibilities and I think you see almost every emotion in the movie. You see pretty much everything." The Associated Press reported his remarks this afternoon.

"I personally have trouble watching it because it's a time in my life that I don't like to go back to," said O'Brien, who now hosts his late-night show "Conan" on TBS. "I'm happy where I am now. I don't really need to go back to it. But I made a commitment" to director Rodman Flender. The two were Harvard classmates in the 1980s.

"I've put this all behind me, and this came along, and suddenly Rodman said, 'Hey, the film's done,' and I said, 'What film?'" O'Brien said. "It might be informative to some people that are going through a crisis," he said. "If it can serve any good for anybody, then fine, then I'm happy."

(AP photo)