Aubrey Plaza Compares Her Grief Over Jeff Baena’s Death to The Gorge

Aubrey Plaza’s grief is “always there” following the death of her husband, Jeff Baena. Plaza opened up about the tragedy for the first time since the Horse Girl and I Heart Huckabees filmmaker died by suicide in January, speaking with her friend and former Parks and Rec co-star Amy Poehler on the podcast, Good Hang.

“Right in this very, very present moment, I feel happy to be with you,” Plaza said when Poehler asked how she was doing. “Overall, I’m here, and I’m functioning, and I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I’m okay, but, you know, it’s, like, a daily struggle, obviously.” Plaza answered the question while petting her Nederlandse Kooikerhondje rescue dog, Frankie, who she acknowledged has long been like a “therapy dog” for her. 

She went on to compare her grief to the plot of the 2025 film The Gorge, in which Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy are guarding opposite sides of a gorge filled with monsters. “I swear when I watched it, I was like, ‘That feels like what my grief is like … or what grief could be like,’” Plaza said. “Where it’s like, at all times, there’s a giant ocean of just awfulness that’s right there, and I can see it, and sometimes I just want to dive into it and just be in it, and then sometimes I just look at it, and then sometimes I just try to get away from it. But it’s always there.”

This marks the first time that Plaza has spoken at length about Baena’s death, whom she began dating in 2011. She confirmed that she had married the writer-director in a 2021 Instagram post that referred to him as her “darling husband.” Plaza and his family called his loss an “unimaginable tragedy” in a statement released after his death. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support,” the joint statement read. “Please respect our privacy during this time.” 

If you or anyone you know are in crisis, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988.