Tom Felton is best known for his role as the Slytherin wizard Draco Malfoy in ‘Harry Potter‘ films. While his fans might know all about his love life and high-profile relationships, they may not be aware of his personal life challenges.
Felton recently released his memoir named ‘Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard‘. We get insights into some really personal struggles that Felton faced when he was still a child actor. Let’s take a look at the details he gave his fans in his memoir.
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Tom Felton Opens Up About Alcohol Addiction
Tom Felton revealed in his book that his 20s didn’t go as we all expected. Felton told that he began drinking as an escape from his life and feelings and was mostly found at dive bars in Los Angeles. “Drinking becomes a habit at the best of times. When you’re drinking to escape a situation, even more, so. The habit spilled out of the bar and, from time to time, on to set,” the ‘Harry Potter‘ admitted in his memoir.
He continued, “It came to the point where I would think nothing of having a drink while I was working. I’d turn up unprepared, not the professional I wanted to be. The alcohol, though, wasn’t the problem. It was the symptom.” Tom’s manager, agents, lawyers, and then-girlfriend Jade Olivia organized an intervention for him and everyone wrote him a letter.
Felton also detailed how the letter from his lawyer was the one that hit him the hardest. “My lawyer, whom I’d barely ever met face to face, spoke with quiet honesty. ‘Tom,’ he said, ‘I don’t know you very well, but you seem like a nice guy. All I want to tell you is that this is the seventeenth intervention I’ve been to in my career. Eleven of them are now dead. Don’t be the twelfth.‘”
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Tom Felton Tried To Escape Rehab
Felton gave up on his anger and denial and agreed to go into a rehab facility in Malibu. However, the actor tried to escape the facility in less than no time. He recounted, “All of a sudden, the frustration burst out of me. I was, I realize now, completely sober for the first time in ages, and I had an overwhelming sense of clarity and anger. I started screaming at God, at the sky, at everyone and no one, full of fury for what had happened to me, for the situation in which I found myself. I yelled, full-lung, at the sky and the ocean. I yelled until I’d let it all out, and I couldn’t yell anymore.“
He went to another rehab after some time. However, he was kicked out of there when he was found in a women’s room. And then, as a vicious cycle continued, he went to another one. “Just as we all experience physical ill-health at some stage in our lives, so we all experience mental ill-health too. There’s no shame in that. It’s not a sign of weakness. And part of the reason that I took the decision to write these pages is the hope that by sharing my experiences, I might be able to help someone else who is struggling,” he added.
Felton said that he accepts that sometimes he needs help and is not okay. He said that he wants to normalize the idea of therapy and the stigma attached to rehab so people can talk about it openly.
